“Michael’s experience in sophisticated corporate transactions and his hands-on, business-savvy approach aligns closely with our commitment to delivering high-quality and efficient legal counsel to our clients,” said Catherine Kemnitz, Managing Director of Axiom Advice & Counsel. “Our clients will immediately benefit from his ability to address both the daily legal needs of portfolio companies and the complex capital requirements of PE and VC sponsors, as his experience working hand-in-hand with companies and their investors enables him to effectively manage their interconnected legal and business challenges.”

With extensive experience in complex corporate transactions and corporate law matters across multiple industries, particularly PE- and VC-backed companies, Michael addresses the diverse legal challenges for businesses at various growth stages. His approach balances risk management with operational efficiency, enabling companies to navigate complex legal landscapes while maintaining transaction readiness.

“AA&C’s innovative approach to legal services aligns with my belief in providing clients with the legal counsel they need at an efficient rate structure,” said Michael. “This approach is particularly valuable for growing companies with diverse legal needs but limited internal resources. By combining deep industry knowledge with flexible service models, we can help these businesses navigate complex legal landscapes while optimizing their legal spend and focusing on growth and value creation.”

Michael holds a J.D., cum laude, from The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, where he received the CALI Award for Law, Entrepreneurship & Innovation and served as a teaching fellow for 1L contracts courses. He earned his B.A. in Psychology from Indiana University – Bloomington, graduating from the Hutton Honors College.

For more information or to talk to an Axiom Advice & Counsel (AA&C) representative, visit our website, and network with us on LinkedIn.

Related Axiom News

About Axiom Advice & Counsel

Located in Arizona, Axiom Advice & Counsel (AA&C) is setting a new standard for the modern law firm. From prioritizing clients and the lawyer experience, to finding the right legal talent for the right legal matter, AA&C’s approach to the law firm model provides clients with better value for every dollar spent on outside counsel. AA&C represents a diverse set of clients, ranging from growing mid-market businesses to global multinationals with large in-house teams. The firm focuses on corporate law including general counsel services, real estate, labor and employment, mergers and acquisitions, data privacy, intellectual property, and regulatory matters. For more information, please visit https://www.axiomadviceandcounsel.com.

About Axiom

Axiom is where high-caliber legal talent meets full-service law firm work. We invented the alternative legal services industry 24 years ago and now serve more than 1,500 legal departments globally, including 68% of the Fortune 100, with 95% client satisfaction. Axiom gives small, mid-market, and enterprise clients a single trusted provider who can deliver a full spectrum of legal solutions and services across more than a dozen practice areas and all major industries at rates up to 50% less than national law firms. To learn how Axiom can help your legal departments do more for less, visit axiomlaw.com.

SOURCE Axiom Advice & Counsel

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 15, 2024 — Ghost, the B2B marketplace connecting the world’s leading brands and retailers, today announced it has raised $40 million in Series C funding led by L Catterton, a leading global consumer-focused investment firm, with participation from existing investors including USV, Cathay Innovation, Equal Ventures, and Eniac.

Ghost’s tech-enabled marketplace provides a seamless digital experience to more than 6,000+ members on its platform, which include some of the world’s most iconic brands and category-leading retailers in apparel, footwear, beauty, home goods, and beyond. Its proprietary platform serves as a one-stop solution for brands, allowing them to enter into new channels and geographies by connecting them with a broad range of vetted buyers around the world who are seeking access to both surplus and wholesale inventory. As a trusted partner, Ghost ensures sellers can maintain brand control and integrity, while developing relationships with hard-to-reach global partners. Ghost provides efficiency and certainty in moving large volumes at higher recovery values.

Since completing its Series B funding round in August 2023, Ghost has significantly scaled its platform through investments in infrastructure, AI, and international expansion.

“We are highly focused on advancing our mission to be the most trusted inventory solution for the world’s best brands,” said Josh Kaplan, Co-CEO of Ghost. “Ghost has continued to grow and expand our focus to be the true partner of choice for leading brands and retailers looking for efficient inventory management and channel opportunities. This investment from L Catterton – a world-class partner with relationships with some of the most beloved consumer brands globally – will allow us to build on our momentum and capitalize on a number of compelling product and geographic expansion opportunities.”

“L Catterton’s global network and deep expertise in retail, technology, and sustainable growth will significantly support our efforts to innovate and continue growing the Ghost ecosystem as we solve some of the largest pain points for our members,” said Dee Murthy, Co-CEO of Ghost. “We are confident this partnership will allow us – and most importantly, our members – to unlock new opportunities while positioning Ghost for long-term success.”

“Ghost’s customers shared with us that they love the platform’s user-friendly interface, advanced matching technology, and ability to maintain brand control over where their products end up,” said Ian Friedman, Partner and Managing Director in L Catterton’s Growth Fund. “After seeing such demonstrable customer love for Ghost as a trusted partner and high dependence on the platform, we had a strong desire to partner with the Ghost team to solve the massive pain points facing companies in managing surplus inventory and see tremendous opportunity ahead for the business.”

About Ghost
Ghost is the world’s leading B2B platform for brands and retailers to buy and sell surplus and wholesale inventory. The members-only marketplace solves the frustrations that have held back brands for far too long. By combining user-friendly technology with industry data, Ghost is shaping the future of retail and offering an all-in-one solution for buying and selling goods effortlessly.

About L Catterton
L Catterton is a market-leading consumer-focused investment firm, managing approximately $35 billion of equity capital and three multi-product platforms: private equity, credit, and real estate. The firm’s funds have the ability to invest between $5 million and $5 billion, across the capital structure, in well-positioned consumer businesses. Leveraging deep category insight, operational excellence, and a broad network of strategic relationships, L Catterton’s team of more than 200 investment and operating professionals across 17 offices partners with management teams to drive differentiated value creation across its portfolio. Founded in 1989, the firm has made over 275 investments in some of the world’s most iconic consumer brands. For more information about L Catterton, please visit lcatterton.com.

Contacts:

Ghost
Helen Joel
[email protected]

L Catterton
Julie Hamilton
[email protected] 
+1 203 742 5185

SOURCE L Catterton

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• Port empowers teams to fully own the development lifecycle by unifying software development tools and workflows in a central hub
• Company also secures GitHub as a customer, rolling out its offering to GitHub’s engineering team

TEL AVIV, Israel, Oct. 15, 2024 — Port, the leading internal developer portal, announced today $35 million in Series B funding, bringing its total funding to $58M to date. The round was led by Accel, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners and existing investors, including Team8 and TLV Partners. The highly oversubscribed round comes on the heels of Port’s exceptional growth, with a 7x year-over-year increase in revenue. Port’s user base has expanded eightfold since its Series A funding just one year ago, with customers including leading brands like LG, British Telecom and GitHub, which recently selected Port as the internal developer portal for their engineering team. Additionally, Port announced the integration of LLMs into its platform, enabling organizations to enhance their developer experience with generative AI.

Modern software development has evolved dramatically, with the responsibilities of developers expanding far beyond writing code. They are now responsible for the delivery process of features, managing cloud resources, handling incidents and outages, as well as complying with the organization’s standards for security, quality, and compliance. This expanded responsibility, coupled with the intricacies of the modern development ecosystem, has created a chaotic situation where developers are constantly seeking guidance, creating tickets for tasks outside their core competencies, and relying heavily on tribal knowledge to navigate the landscape. This not only slows down development but also exacerbates quality, security, and compliance issues.

Port enables developers to handle the full scope of their expanded role by providing an internal developer portal that acts as a central work hub. The portal unifies all of the tools and workflows developers need to fully own the software development life cycle within an intuitive interface. The open platform is highly adaptable, integrating with the existing tech stack behind the scenes to create a standardized operating environment for R&D teams. The portal allows developers to perform complex tasks, like spinning up a new microservice, in just a few clicks with all best practices baked in. This approach not only enhances developer productivity but also ensures compliance with company policies.

“Development teams today are overwhelmed with responsibilities that extend far beyond writing code, leading to operational chaos and a degradation of standards,” said Zohar Einy, co-founder and CEO of Port. “Our mission is to empower teams to start left, ensuring that everything is secure, compliant, and high-quality by design. Port provides a dynamic, customizable platform that fits into each company’s DNA and evolves with their needs, enabling all stakeholders — from developers to security teams to leadership — to collaborate effectively and maintain organizational standards. Port empowers teams to be self-sufficient owners of the software they develop, restoring agility and driving significant business impact.”

Port is also announcing the integration of popular LLMs with its platform, allowing organizations to embed AI capabilities directly into their customized developer portals. The open nature of Port’s platform enables each organization to leverage AI models according to their needs. Popular uses include: investigating incidents using natural language search to quickly find root causes and relevant experts, automatically generating clear error messages from failed build logs, and recommending internal libraries and components to developers based on the feature or service they’re currently working on.

“We see the internal developer portal market as the next big must have in software development, with the potential to rival the impact of APM or Git providers,” said Matt Robinson, Partner at Accel. “Port has emerged as the #1 product in this space due to the platform being highly customizable while also maintaining agility and ease of use. Zohar and Yonatan’s dev-first approach sets them apart and their exceptional growth speaks volumes about the team’s product execution and market fit.”

“Over the past decade, organizations have invested heavily in DevOps, automating processes and adopting best practices to drive agility,” said Amit Karp, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. “However, they haven’t reaped the full benefits due to the increased complexities introduced. Port has experienced a meteoric rise because it arrived at a key moment, serving as the missing piece that completes the DevOps puzzle. Customizable internal developer portals enable organizations to finally unlock the true promise of DevOps — improved DORA metrics, streamlined workflows, enhanced agility, adherence to standards, and empowered developers.”

About Port 

Port is the leading platform for creating internal developer portals, empowering all stakeholders in the software development lifecycle. Founded in 2022 by Zohar Einy and Yonatan Boguslavski, it emerged from the founders’ experience building an internal developer portal for Israel’s elite 8200 intelligence unit, which served over 2,000 developers. Now with 100 employees and tens of thousands of users, Port has rapidly become the de facto standard in the market, providing a central hub that unifies tools, knowledge, and workflows for developers, security teams, and leadership alike. The platform’s customizable interface enables seamless collaboration and ensures compliance with organizational standards, from setting up microservices to managing cloud resources and handling incidents. Port’s open platform integrates with existing tech stacks and incorporates AI capabilities, adapting to each company’s unique DNA. By streamlining processes and enhancing visibility, Port drives significant business impact, improves DORA metrics, and unlocks the true promise of DevOps for companies of all sizes. To learn more about Port’s internal developer portal platform, visit getport.io.

SOURCE Port

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Now supporting provider organizations that serve hundreds of thousands of patients nationwide, Parakeet expands with multiple new provider deals and with $3 million in seed funding led by Canvas Ventures.

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 15, 2024 — Parakeet Health, a generative AI company focused on improving patient engagement for healthcare providers, today announced the launch of its generative AI voice platform, which transforms how healthcare providers handle patient communication at scale. The company also secured $3 million in seed funding led by Canvas Ventures with participation from CoFound Partners, StoryHouse Ventures and several prominent individual investors, including former One Medical CEO Tom Lee, MD, and former Twitter CTO Adam Messinger.

Parakeet Health addresses common frustrations patients face when communicating with healthcare providers, a problem that disrupts the patient experience and can lead to revenue loss and staff burnout for provider organizations. The platform automates contact center tasks and other repetitive administrative duties using AI voice agents, available 24/7 and in multiple languages, to handle both outbound and inbound patient communications via calls and texts. Use cases include appointment scheduling, managing referrals, patient outreach (prescription status, labs, wellness visits, etc.), billing and payments and answering FAQs.

In just six months, Parakeet’s approach has already been proven to drive down patient acquisition costs by 2x (from $8.38 to $4.09), in addition to improving success rates. The platform also eliminates all missed calls, a key challenge that can hinder provider growth. The company’s strong early proof points have contributed to it signing several major customers, including virtual primary care provider Galileo, which operates 24/7 in all 50 states; virtual genetic counseling leader Genome Medical; and multi-site skin care provider Medical Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery.

“Our practice has always embraced new technologies that allow us to be among the most innovative in the country, and the generative AI voice solutions from Parakeet represent the latest opportunity for us,” said Dr. Parinita Amin, CEO of Medical Dermatology & Cosmetic Surgery. “We plan to deploy the technology to automate an increasing number of administrative tasks, allowing our team to focus more on patient care. By streamlining calling workflows, we can provide a more efficient and seamless experience for our patients. This technology not only enhances the operational side of our practice but also ensures that patients receive the timely, personalized attention they deserve, ultimately improving the quality of care we deliver.”

Created by experienced leaders in healthcare delivery and AI, Parakeet’s founding team includes Co-founder and CEO Jung Park, who previously held executive positions at One Medical and Epocrates; Co-founder Eric Mao, who led product and engineering teams at Microsoft and Primer AI; and CTO Aaron Lee, who was an engineering team leader at Rippling and Twitter. Former Doximity CRO and One Medical SVP Paul Jorgensen currently serves as Strategic Advisor and also invested in the company. 

“We’ve all experienced long holds, after-hours frustrations, and waiting for call-backs when communicating with our doctors. Sadly, these experiences are more the norm and not the exception for patients, and while they may sound small, these everyday issues are far more damaging to healthcare practices than they seem, especially when every dollar counts,” said Park. “Our platform is built with deep knowledge of the healthcare system, giving providers an AI-powered voice agent that understands and supports their workflows and handles tasks that usually require entire teams.”

Most AI voice solutions currently used by healthcare providers to handle patient communication are based on rules and only handle specific tasks. However, Parakeet’s AI is powered by advanced large language models (LLMs), enabling it to manage a broad range of patient interactions while also seamlessly integrating with systems like EHRs, billing, VoIP, insurance claims and CRM tools.

About 90% of patients still use the phone to schedule appointments, especially older adults. However, managing calls is a costly and time-consuming challenge for providers, contributing to patient churn, revenue loss and staff burnout and turnover. Staffing issues remain a significant concern for U.S. medical practices, with 58% naming it as their biggest challenge last year.

“AI-generated voice is the next frontier in healthcare, but not all teams are up to the task of building it,” said Canvas Ventures Partner Rebecca Lynn. “Drawing from his work across One Medical, Epocrates and PE-backed multi-site specialty practices, Parakeet’s CEO Jung Park is uniquely well-versed in what actually matters to providers to help them run a more efficient practice, and ultimately grow their businesses. I’m very excited about what is in store for the Parakeet team—and the industry as a whole—as we see the power of voice take hold.”

Parakeet aims to expand by targeting health systems, multi-site medical practices and large senior primary care providers offered by Medicare Advantage plans. The company plans to use its seed funding to grow its team and further develop its technology.

About Parakeet Health

Parakeet Health is a healthcare AI company developing voice agents to transform patient engagement, reduce administrative burdens and drive higher revenue for providers. Its platform, powered by advanced LLM technology, supports various patient-experience use cases by managing both inbound and outbound communications at scale. Founded by an experienced team of healthcare and technology leaders from some of the most innovative companies, Parakeet is backed by Canvas Ventures, CoFound Partners, StoryHouse Ventures and many notable individual investors. Visit www.parakeethealth.com for more information.

Press Contact Info:

[email protected]

SOURCE Parakeet Health

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GRAND JUNCTION, Colo., Oct. 15, 2024 — Pinpoint Search Group, a leading cybersecurity recruitment firm in the U.S., has released the findings of its Q3 2024 cybersecurity funding report. The report shows a decline in both the number of transactions and the total funding raised compared to Q3 2023. The findings also suggest that venture capital funding for cybersecurity vendors is stabilizing.

In Q3 2024, Pinpoint Search Group’s research team recorded 86 transactions in the cybersecurity vendor space, totaling $2.15 billion across 73 funding rounds and 13 M&A events. This represents approximately an 18 percent decrease in transaction volume from 89 in Q3 2023 and a five percent decrease in fundraising from the previous year’s $2.3 billion.

Despite the year-over-year decline in the number of transactions and total funding raised in Q3 2024, venture capital funding for cybersecurity vendors seems to be stabilizing following the highs of 2021 and the slowdown in 2022. Over the past nine quarters, vendors have consistently raised between two and three billion dollars, reflecting a more steady and sustainable funding trend.

“During the funding peaks of 2021 and 2022, many in the industry wondered when the other shoe would drop,” said Mark Sasson, founder and managing partner of Pinpoint Search Group. “The funding levels at the time seemed unsustainable and potentially harmful to the industry’s long-term health. Now, after the slowdown, we’ve seen a return to stability over the past nine quarters, in contrast to the volatile swings experienced during 2021 through mid-2022. This trend is a positive sign for founders and industry professionals, offering a more sustainable outlook for cybersecurity funding.”

The demand for cybersecurity innovation continues to rise, with substantial year-over-year funding directed toward early-stage vendors. In Q3 2024, this trend held steady, as 59 percent of all venture capital investments were allocated to Seed and Series-A startups, representing the majority of funding rounds recorded for the quarter.

During the same period, late-stage funding rounds (Growth Funding and Series C, D) accounted for 13.5 percent of the total funding volume. Despite the lower volume, these late-stage rounds represented a significant 60 percent of the total funding dollars raised during the quarter, highlighting the continued importance of larger investments in mature companies.

A full copy of Pinpoint Search Group’s Q3 2024 report on cybersecurity funding can be found here. 

About Pinpoint Search Group
Pinpoint Search Group is a leading cybersecurity recruitment firm and specializes in filling vice president, director, and senior individual talent. Pinpoint’s collective experience recruiting hundreds of candidates in all segments of cybersecurity provides the company with the credibility to communicate with, qualify, and place professionals in today’s most competitive area of technology. Pinpoint also produces Cybersecurity M&A and Vendor Funding Reports highlighting M&As and funding in the cybersecurity space monthly, quarterly, and annually.

Media Contact:
Christopher Joseph (CJ) Arlotta
CJ Media Solutions, LLC for Pinpoint Search Group
C: 631-572-3019
[email protected]

SOURCE Pinpoint Search Group

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Funding will drive expansion into new states and broaden company’s offering to include mobile clinic programs, making essential services available to more underserved communities

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 15, 2024 — Alchemy today announced the closing of its $31M seed financing. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (“a16z”) Bio + Health with participation from Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners, Banc of California and existing investors Twine Ventures, Springbank and AlleyCorp. Alchemy provides the entire physical, clinical, and digital infrastructure needed to build, operate and grow in-house pharmacy programs with a focus on serving clinics with large HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV) patient populations.

HIV communities across the country have long been underserved and have significant unmet needs. Alchemy is first partnering with Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), STD and Ryan White clinics to implement its platform that designs clinical pharmacy programs and deploys technology products that leverage the pharmacy to expand patient reach, improve health outcomes, and optimize the financial impact of a clinic’s pharmacy program.

“Investing in Alchemy is deeply personal, not only as a person living with HIV, but because I’ve witnessed firsthand the devastating impacts of HIV in our communities. Alchemy’s commitment to eliminating barriers to care and serving the underserved is a mission I’m proud to support,” said Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Chairman and CEO at Magic Johnson Enterprises.

Alchemy’s founding team has extensive clinical, pharmacy, technology, and operations experience. Collectively, they have spent 18 years in Africa building the largest HIV access program in the world, and they have set up, operated and scaled pharmacies that have dispensed over 25 million prescriptions to patients across all 50 states in the US.

“Having spent over a decade in Africa building the largest HIV access program in the world, I was shocked to learn that HIV medication adherence rates in Africa are better than they are here in the United States. I’m convinced that the number one barrier to medication access for HIV patients is the friction that exists in navigating the US pharmacy system,” said Peter Park, founder and Co-CEO of Alchemy. “By bringing the clinic and the pharmacy into one location, we are providing unique solutions that meet the needs for HIV and HCV populations across the country.”

Founded in 2023, Alchemy has seen exceptional demand and impact of its in-house pharmacy platform, including tripling the number of patients served at the first pharmacy launched in Oklahoma City for Equality Health. This financing will allow the company to accelerate growth and launch in-house pharmacy programs across 20 states over the next year. Alchemy will also expand its offerings to include a mobile clinic program and a digital platform to streamline pharmacy operations and patient communication.

“At a time when safety net clinics for patients are threatened, the industry needs solutions that provide technology-enabled, end-to-end support for these clinics to transform pharmacy access nationwide,” said Julie Yoo, General Partner at a16z Bio + Health. “The Alchemy team has a proven track record building for challenging and underserved communities, and we’re looking forward to supporting them as they partner with clinics to ensure vulnerable communities continue to have access to essential medications and services.” 

About Alchemy
Alchemy is on a mission to serve safety net clinics and their patients, starting with in-house pharmacies for Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), STD and Ryan White clinics. After setting up an in-house pharmacy, Alchemy designs and implements clinical pharmacy programs and deploys technology products that leverage the pharmacy to expand patient reach, improve health outcomes, and increase the financial impact of a clinic’s pharmacy program. Learn more at www.alchemyhealth.com.

SOURCE Alchemy

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Led by Scale Venture Partners, the $45M investment—the largest Series B in AI Evaluation and Observability to date —follows 834% revenue growth in 2024 and expansion into the Fortune 50

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 15, 2024 — Galileo, a leader in generative AI evaluation and observability for enterprises, today announced it raised $45M in Series B funding led by Scale Venture Partners, with participation from Premji Invest, bringing the company’s total funding to $68M. This comes at a time of explosive growth for the company, which has seen 834% revenue growth since the beginning of 2024. During this time, the company quadrupled its number of enterprise customers and brought on six Fortune 50 companies, including Comcast and Twilio.

The surge in enterprise demand for Galileo’s Evaluation Intelligence platform also attracted participation from strategic investors, including Databricks Ventures, ServiceNow Ventures, Amex Ventures, Citi Ventures, SentinelOne Ventures, as well as AI leaders like Clement Delangue, CEO of HuggingFace and Ankit Sobti, CTO of Postman. The round also includes existing investors, Battery Ventures, Walden Capital and Factory. Additionally, Andy Vitus, Partner at Scale Venture Partners, will join Galileo’s board. With this investment, Galileo will scale its go-to-market strategy, expand its product development efforts, and double down on AI evaluation research to help AI developers build trustworthy AI applications.

Generative AI’s unpredictable nature poses new challenges for enterprises, with the lack of reliable methods to test and measure AI accuracy and safety becoming a major barrier to its widespread adoption. Galileo’s Evaluation Intelligence platform solves this by giving AI teams a scalable solution to evaluate, monitor, and protect their AI systems, helping ensure safe and effective performance in development and production.

“We started Galileo three years ago to solve AI’s measurement problem, specifically with a focus on language models. Using humans or LLMs to judge model responses is expensive, slow, and does not scale. Yet today these are the de-facto techniques adopted across AI teams,” said CEO and co-founder of Galileo Vikram Chatterji. “Our unique research-backed approach and carefully crafted UX has seen massive adoption across enterprises to unblock and grow GenAI application development. The new funding will allow us to greatly accelerate our development to meet the increasing demand.”

Galileo’s growth has been driven by three major trends in the AI landscape:

• First, enterprise adoption of generative AI (GenAI) is surging—Gartner projects that by 2026, over 80% of enterprises will have integrated GenAI APIs or deployed GenAI-enabled applications in production.
• Second, as AI becomes accessible to 30 million software developers—not just machine learning engineers and data scientists—many teams lack a standardized framework to evaluate the accuracy and safety of their AI solutions. A recent report found that evaluation is the second greatest challenge in deploying production AI, after serving costs, with nearly 50% of organizations relying on subjective human feedback and review.
• Third, as teams adopt advanced AI methods like RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) and agentic workflows, the need for robust evaluation tools is only intensifying, driving demand for Galileo’s platform to ensure reliable and effective AI deployments.

“Traditional evaluation methods, such as human evaluations or using LLMs as judges, fall short for enterprise use cases,” said Jim Nottingham, SVP & Division President, Advanced Compute Solutions, HP Inc. “Galileo’s rapid innovation and focus on overcoming the biggest evaluation hurdles— from accuracy to bias – provides a complete view of how Gen AI apps are performing, which is why they’ve become a critical part of our Z by HP AI Studio.”

Galileo provides enterprises with an end-to-end platform that enables teams to use more accurate and trustworthy AI. Galileo developed the first Evaluation Intelligence Platform, that embeds research-backed evaluation metrics across the entire GenAI stack and workflow, giving teams the visibility and control they need to build, deploy, test, monitor, and secure their AI system.

“As GenAI continues to be adopted in enterprises globally, the need for accurate, fast, and cost-efficient evaluations has become even more important,” said Andy Vitus, Partner at Scale. “Galileo’s founders were solving this measurement problem at Google AI, Google Brain, and Uber AI for years. Now with a talented team, cutting edge AI evaluation research, and well-designed platform, Galileo has established itself as a leader in AI Evaluations and Observability. We look forward to working with Galileo during its next phase of growth.” 

“We are thrilled to deepen our partnership with the Galileo team,” said Andrew Ferguson, VP, Databricks Ventures. “Evaluations have become a critical component of the AI stack, and Galileo has established itself as a leader with one of the most mature products and businesses in this space. We look forward to collaborating further to accelerate enterprise adoption of generative AI and to help companies build data intelligence.”

“It’s incredibly rare to find AI infrastructure companies like Galileo that can deliver value regardless of your chosen cloud or LLM,” said Vedant Agrawal, Vice President of Premji Invest. “This unique positioning, coupled with the potential to build a massive franchise, is what drove our excitement.”

Visit www.galileo.ai to learn more about the Galileo suite of products.

About Galileo
San-Francisco based Galileo is the leading platform for enterprise GenAI evaluation and observability. Powered by Evaluation Foundation Models (EFMs), Galileo’s platform supports AI teams across the development lifecycle—from building and iterating to monitoring and protection—with powerful, research-backed metrics. Galileo is used by AI teams from startups to Fortune 50 companies to accelerate AI development. Visit galileo.ai to learn more about the Galileo Evaluation Intelligence Platform.

SOURCE Galileo

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– with over $22M firm commitments to date, new fund’s focus will continue to source/support catalyzing innovation in this vital sector amidst promising improvement in M&A climate, multiple recent successful exits

CHAMPAIGN, Ill., Oct. 15, 2024 — With investments secured from the State of Illinois’s Growth & Innovation Fund as well as the State of Wisconsin’s Economic Development Corp., the SERRA AG & FOOD TECH FUND II has obtained in excess of $22M in investor commitments to date with an initial target raise of $100M. With their Midwestern roots, they’ve successfully invested in ag-tech deals since 2011 as Serra has a track record of exiting Ag & Food Tech companies to the largest Ag players including John Deere, Nutrien, and Bayer among others. With 13 years of Ag/Tech investing experience they are one of the most prolific investors in this sector, having been ranked third most active in 2023 by Pitchbook. Amidst a historically harsh global economic landscape at the time – as only 9% of 2021 vintage venture funds produced a cash return – Serra was one of those. 

This new Fund is further enhanced by improving macro economics, including low inflation and falling interest rates – which are ideal conditions for spurring new M&A activity, which has already been rebounding significantly as evidenced by multiple exits for portfolio companies in Serra’s earlier funds.

Responding to the acceleration of today’s planetary pressures given humanity’s ongoing need for the basics of life: food, water, and air, Serra Ventures specifically focuses on sourcing and supporting early stage companies delivering breakthrough technologies in this key sector of AgTech through their well-honed lens of the changing consumer, changing farmer, and changing climate.

The firm presently manages $180M in early-stage company investments with the support of over 275 limited partner investors. With offices in Champaign, Chicago, Park City, and San Diego, Serra Ventures has provided consulting to over 500 technology start-ups, and funding to over 100 of them. Accredited investors who are interested in partnering with Serra Ag & Food Tech Fund II‘s timely and compelling “sustainable healthy planet” mission are invited to learn more: www.SerraVentures.com.

Producers/editors: www.serraventures.com/pressroom

Interviews: Seasoned entrepreneur and Serra Ventures’ founder & CEO Tim Hoerr is available for interviews

Contact: (Ms.) “Sam” Jernigan, publicist, Renaissance Consultations, 530.362.1339, [email protected] 

SOURCE Serra Ventures, LLC

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• Lumachain’s SaaS platform uses Computer Vision-based Artificial Intelligence to enhance safety, yield, efficiency, quality, traceability, and trust in food production
• Brassica is a Mediterranean inspired sandwich and salad concept committed to wholesome ingredients and sustainable practices

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Oct. 15, 2024 — Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) today announced it is making a minority investment in Lumachain, an AI supply chain platform, and Brassica, a fast-casual restaurant concept, through its $100 million Cultivate Next venture fund. Introduced in 2022, Cultivate Next makes early-stage investments into strategically aligned companies that further Chipotle’s mission to Cultivate a Better World and help accelerate the company’s longer term growth plans to operate 7,000 restaurants in North America.

Lumachain
Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, Lumachain’s mission is to improve how food is produced, for good. The minority female-founded company has developed a traceability solution that, in real-time, tracks the origin, location, and condition of individual items in a supply chain, from farm to table, enabling reduced waste and increased efficiency. Lumachain’s traceability platform is complemented by its Computer Vision AI platform that monitors operations inside food production plants, to improve quality, efficiency and safety.

“The visibility in real time and quality data analytics that Lumachain’s software provides could optimize the management and quality of perishable goods for the food service industry,” said Curt Garner, Chief Customer and Technology Officer, Chipotle.

Brassica
The Columbus, Ohio based fast-casual restaurant serves wholesome, Eastern Mediterranean-inspired cuisine for guests to personalize their own salads and sandwiches. Founded in 2015, Brassica is committed to using high quality, locally-sourced ingredients at its six restaurant locations. The concept provides healthy dining options without compromising flavor. It includes a front-line ordering experience and a welcoming atmosphere defined by natural materials and standout architectural details. Signature items include house-made falafel, baked-to-order organic pita, antibiotic-free meats, roasted vegetables, Brassica seasoned fries, vegan tahini chocolate chip cookies, and fresh-squeezed minty pink lemonade.

“Investing in emerging culinary concepts that align with Chipotle’s commitment to using real, fresh ingredients and making craveable food daily is consistent with our mission to Cultivate a Better World,” said Nate Lawton, Chief Business Development Officer, Chipotle. “Funding from Cultivate Next’s minority investment will help Brassica scale to open new locations and expand to new markets.”

Chipotle’s Cultivate Next venture fund portfolio includes: Brassica, GreenField Robotics, Hyphen, Local Line, Lumachain, Meati Foods, Nitricity, Vebu, and Zero Acre Farms. Companies interested in collaborating with Chipotle through the Cultivate Next venture fund can apply by emailing [email protected].

ABOUT CHIPOTLE
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG) is cultivating a better world by serving responsibly sourced, classically-cooked, real food with wholesome ingredients without artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. There are over 3,500 restaurants as of June 30, 2024, in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Kuwait and it is the only restaurant company of its size that owns and operates all its restaurants in North America and Europe. Chipotle is ranked on the Fortune 500 and is recognized on Fortune’s Most Admired Companies 2024 list and Time Magazine’s Most Influential Companies. With over 120,000 employees passionate about providing a great guest experience, Chipotle is a longtime leader and innovator in the food industry. Chipotle is committed to making its food more accessible to everyone while continuing to be a brand with a demonstrated purpose as it leads the way in digital, technology and sustainable business practices. For more information or to place an order online, visit Chipotle.com.

SOURCE Chipotle Mexican Grill

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