AWS, CapitalG, and Microsoft, along with new investors AT&T Ventures and QIA, join Series I funding

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 10, 2023 — Databricks, the Data and AI company, today announced additional closings of its recent Series I funding. Existing investors Amazon Web Services (AWS), CapitalG, and Microsoft, along with new investors AT&T Ventures, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), and Sanabil Investments, participated in the funding round, which put the company at a $43B post-money valuation. The Series I funding will be used to accelerate the development of transformative AI technology, Gen AI research, and hiring AI data scientists and engineering talent.

“The interest we received from investors and strategic partners for this round of funding has been overwhelming, and we are excited to add AT&T and QIA, among others, who believe in our vision and business strategy,” said Ali Ghodsi, Co-Founder and CEO of Databricks. “Generative AI adoption is a top priority for every CEO today. Databricks’ multicloud architecture enables organizations to preserve privacy and control over their data when moving to AWS, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure to build Gen AI solutions. With our partners, we can accelerate the development of our platform and deliver business value faster for our customers.”

The Databricks platform unifies data, analytics, and AI on a single platform so customers can govern, manage, and derive insights from enterprise data and build their generative AI solutions faster.

“As an early pioneer of AI, we know just how foundational this technology is to the future of business and society. For years AI has enabled our network, services, and people to be more efficient, effective, and creative. Our AT&T Ventures team fosters game-changing companies, like Databricks, that help drive connectivity innovation forward. Through our work with Databricks, we’ve seen first-hand the business value they provide and we’re excited to deepen our relationship with them as we help usher in a connected generative AI generation.” – Andy Markus, CDO, AT&T

“AI represents a profound technology shift, and our investment in Databricks reflects our belief in its platform, which is expertly able to unify data, analytics, and AI.  This investment is aligned with QIA’s investment approach to invest in forward-looking, tech-led companies, many of which are building AI seamlessly into their product and offerings. We are pleased to be an investor in Databricks and look forward to a fruitful, long-term partnership as the company scales.”  – Mohammed Al-Hardan, Head of Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) investments at QIA

AT&T Ventures, AWS, CapitalG, Microsoft, QIA, and Sanabil joined previously announced investors participating in the Series I funding, including Andreessen Horowitz, Baillie Gifford, Capital One Ventures, ClearBridge Investments, funds and accounts managed by Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley), Fidelity Management & Research Company, Franklin Templeton, Gaingels, Ghisallo Capital Management, GIC, NVIDIA, Octahedron Capital, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. and Tiger Global.

About Databricks
Databricks is the Data and AI company. More than 10,000 organizations worldwide — including Comcast, Condé Nast, and over 50% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Lakehouse Platform to unify their data, analytics and AI. Founded by the original creators of Delta Lake, Apache Spark™, and MLflow, Databricks is on a mission to help data teams solve the world’s toughest problems. To learn more, follow Databricks on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Contact: [email protected] 

SOURCE Databricks

CHICAGO, Nov. 10, 2023 — New Era ADR, a dispute resolution technology platform, is proud to announce an investment by Marquee Ventures, a venture capital fund spun-out of the Chicago Cubs. OnDean, the family office of Andrew Sieja, founder and former CEO of legaltech and eDiscovery giant, Relativity also participated in this round.

“Marquee Ventures and its affiliated entities including the Chicago Cubs, Wrigley Field, Marquee Development, and Marquee Sports Network, understand how solving business disputes more amicably can have a significant and positive impact on brands and customer experiences, and we are grateful they recognize the significance of our mission,” said Rich Lee, CEO and Co-Founder of New Era ADR. “We were fortunate to be in a position to not need additional investment, but the opportunity to bring on Andrew, other legal and tech leaders, and Marquee and its talent and network of their investors represented a collaboration we couldn’t pass up. This partnership accelerates not only our growth in the sports world – building on our entry into Olympic sports and our work with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency – but also in industries and with organizations far beyond sports.”

Marquee’s investment enables New Era to accelerate the company’s growth, hire top talent, invest in its platform and enhance customer support.

“We see tremendous opportunities for New Era’s tech platform to help parties solve disputes in a more rational and efficient way across a variety of industries. Their blue-chip customers are a testament to how the platform reduces overly slow, expensive and unnecessarily painful litigation. The company’s success in sports, entertainment, real estate, staffing and financial services, and other sectors, demonstrates the scale of the problem the team is solving,” said Erik Hammer, Managing Partner of Marquee Ventures.

Also participating in this round are Jai Shekhewat, Founder of SAP Fieldglass, and leaders at the forefront of the legal industry, including Jae Um, Haley Altman, Ed Sohn, and the LexFusion founding team (Joe Borstein, Casey Flaherty, Paul Stroka).

New Era ADR is a virtual dispute resolution platform that emphasizes efficiency, accessibility, security and fairness by providing parties to a dispute with high-quality resolutions in a timely manner. It is where innovative, forward-thinking, and pragmatic organizations and individuals choose to resolve their legal disputes instead of resorting the long, expensive, and acrimonious processes in overextended courts and legacy arbitration providers. On New Era, parties save up to 90% in time and cost by resolving their disputes in under 100 days with highly experienced arbitrators and mediators, all on New Era’s proprietary technology platform. Our team of technology industry operators, former general counsels, and the best and brightest technologists and engineers share a passion for improving access to justice and making dispute resolution efficient, pragmatic, and amicable for everyone. Visit us at www.neweraadr.com.

Media Contact:
Rich Lee
404-875-3400
[email protected] 

SOURCE New Era ADR

CINCINNATI, Nov. 9, 2023 — Mark Hauser and Hauser Private Equity are pleased to announce that thirteen of its fund investments were named to Inc. Magazine’s “2023 Founder-Friendly Investors,” which honors private equity firms with best-in-class records for successfully partnering with entrepreneurs, founders, and family-led businesses.

“All of our co-investments in 2023 included founder or management rollover,” said Mark Hauser, founder and co-managing partner of Hauser Private Equity. “We specifically invest in funds with managers who have specific industry experience and we prefer founders and management who retain equity in our co-investments.”

Hauser Private Equity manages five private equity funds and has invested with 13 fund managers who made this year’s Inc. list, including Clearlake, Kinderhook, North Castle, Revelstoke, Spanos Barber Jesse, Shore Capital, and Vesey Street. Ten of its managers were named to the list for 2022.

“We’ve invested with many of these fund managers across multiple funds, which shows the strength in the partnership approach to investing with founders,” Hauser said. According to PitchBook data, Hauser Private Equity has made four or more investments each to funds and co-investments with Clearlake, NorthCastle, Revelstoke, SBJ, and Shore Capital.

“Now, more than ever, founder-led companies need financing partners that offer guidance, expertise, and understanding—not just capital. These are the private equity, venture capital, and debt firms that have founders’ backs when it comes to accelerating growth,” says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. Business Media.

“This recognition by Inc. reinforces our mission to partner with family and founder-owned businesses, enabling them to reach new heights while preserving the unique legacies they’ve built,” says Tom Barber, Managing Director at SBJ.

About Hauser Private Equity

Hauser Private Equity, a Cincinnati-based private equity firm with offices in Los Angeles and Chicago, is focused on fund investments and co-investments within the middle market, inclusive of Healthcare, Business Services, Tech-enabled Services, Industrials, and Consumer Goods. HPE targets funds between $250M and $2B in size, with managers showing successful track records in their dedicated areas of expertise. The HPE funds are committed to over 45 private equity fund managers across the country and co-invest exclusively in control buyout deals led by existing GPs. The firm was founded in 2008 by Mark Hauser, following the success of multiple private investment partnerships and merchant banking transactions.

Media Contact:
Phil Riola
Chief Compliance Officer, Hauser Private Equity
[email protected]
310-393-0600

About Inc.

To compile the list, Inc. went straight to the source: entrepreneurs who have sold to private equity and venture capital firms. Founders filled out a questionnaire about their experiences partnering with private equity and venture capital firms and shared data on how their portfolio companies have grown during these partnerships.

To see the complete list, go to: https://www.inc.com/founder-friendly-investors/2023. The October 2023 issue of Inc. Magazine is available online at https://www.inc.com/magazine and on newsstands now.

The “Founder-Friendly Investors” award is a program designed by Inc. Magazine to help founder-led companies accelerate growth and create revenue. Private equity and venture capital firms that have exited U.S.-based, founder-led portfolio companies are eligible to apply. For investments to qualify, portfolio company founders must have remained actively involved in their business for at least one year post-investment. Winning firms are selected based on their investments and founder references. Hauser is not aware of the number of advisers also surveyed for the award. This award is not to be construed as indicative of Hauser’s future performance. Reference to an award is only one piece of information relevant to an evaluation of an investment adviser, such as Hauser. Finally, this award represents information as of a specific date and time and may not reflect important information related to an evaluation of the investment adviser which has occurred prior to, or subsequent to, the award.

SOURCE Hauser Private Equity

MELBOURNE, Australia, Nov. 9, 2023 — ROLLER, an all-in-one, cloud-based venue management software solution built for attraction businesses, today announced their latest funding round of US$50 million led by global software investor, Insight Partners. This latest funding round will provide additional resources and capacity to invest into ROLLER’S platform and services, ultimately helping the company’s customers to grow through delivering exceptional guest experiences.

ROLLER is a complete software platform for modern attractions and leisure venues. From humble origins, ROLLER is now a truly global business with over 1,500 leisure and attractions venues using its platform across 30 countries. Their innovative products include; Ticketing, Point-of-Sale, Integrated Payments, CRM, Memberships, Gift Cards, Waivers, Self-Serve Kiosks, Cashless Wallets, the Guest Experience Score®, and more. The business has also achieved more than 5X times revenue growth over the last 3 years and has done so in a capital efficient manner.

Luke Finn, ROLLER’s Co-founder and CEO said, “We are thrilled to partner with the team at Insight Partners and welcome Rachel Geller to ROLLER’s Board. This is an incredible moment for the business, our phenomenal team and our amazing customers around the world. Whilst we have come so far, over more than a decade since starting the business, this is only the beginning. We are more excited than ever to accelerate our investment in helping our customers to grow and deliver amazing experiences for their guests.”

Rachel Geller, Managing Director at Insight Partners added, “ROLLER has built an impressive business that is positioned to become a global category leader. The company’s genuine obsession and dedication with delivering real value to its customers is a hallmark of all truly great businesses. We are excited to be partnering with Luke, Mark and the ROLLER team as they grow and scale up.”

Mark Finn, ROLLER’s Co-founder and CFO said, “From day 1, we have been focused on delivering solutions that have a real impact on our customers’ businesses, and with the additional support of Insight Partners, we will be able to accelerate innovation and expand our global footprint. Their extensive experience in helping to scale world-class businesses will be invaluable as we embark on this next phase of our journey.”

Noting the involvement of earlier investors and advisors on the transaction, Luke and Mark wished to “thank Acadian Software who continue to be key partners for us, as well as RBC Capital Markets and SBA Law.” The close of the round is subject to approval by Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board.

About ROLLER

ROLLER’s vision is to help create experiences that bring joy and happiness to the world. They aim to achieve this by building technology for leisure and attraction venues that helps them deliver amazing experiences for their guests. ROLLER is a complete software platform for the modern attraction or leisure venue. Their innovative products include: Ticketing, Point-of-Sale, Integrated Payments, CRM, Memberships, Gift Cards, Waivers, Self-Serve Kiosks, Cashless Wallets, the Guest Experience Score®, and more. To learn more, visit roller.software.

About Insight Partners

Insight Partners is a global software investor partnering with high-growth technology, software, and Internet startup and ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. As of June 30, 2023, the firm has over $80B in regulatory assets under management. Insight Partners has invested in more than 800 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO. Headquartered in New York City, Insight has offices in London, Tel Aviv, and Palo Alto. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with tailored, hands-on software expertise along their growth journey, from their first investment to IPO. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on Twitter @insightpartners.

SOURCE ROLLER

“ReGen Ventures believes that innovation is the cornerstone of a regenerative future, and that’s why we invest in visionary companies like Aigen,” said Marcario. “The Aigen team’s exceptional progress in hardware and software development has us eagerly supporting their next phase – scaling.”

Founded in 2020, Aigen is the only agricultural technology company developing truly solar-powered autonomous robots for crop management without chemicals or fossil fuels. The Aigen Element robots combine LTE connectivity with the cutting edge of AI, ML, solar, and battery technology to create a reliable, sustainable product that saves farmers time and money.

“Aigen is defining a new era for agriculture, where farmers prosper and people are healthier. Getting chemicals out of our food is not only incredibly important for fighting climate change, it’s also personal for Kenny and Rich,” said Swati Mylavarapu, managing partner at Incite. “The Aigen team embodies what Incite looks for in our investments: talented entrepreneurs who have the power to make the world a better place. We are thrilled to be joining them.”

To date, Aigen has successfully demonstrated and integrated all critical technologies to solve farmers’ most urgent problem: eliminating herbicide resistant weeds at scale. With a total $19 million raised, Aigen is building a 7,500 sq ft manufacturing and R&D facility to manufacture their solar-powered robotic fleet.

“Agriculture is the intersection of human health and planetary health and that’s why we focused on creating technology for farmers that is both profitable and sustainable. Our robotic fleet empowers farmers to escape the conventional system of chemical dependency,” said Kenny Lee, co-founder and CEO of Aigen. “Thank you to our amazing team who have accomplished so much in the past year. We are humbled by the support of our investors and incredibly excited to scale our fleet into 2024 and beyond.”

“Aigen wouldn’t have been possible a few years ago, because the technology wasn’t there. Today, we have a great team working on the cutting edge of AI, robotics, electric motors, and solar power,” said Rich Wurden, co-founder and CTO of Aigen. “Thanks to technological advances in all those areas and the incredible work of our team, we are automating farming solutions that have worked for thousands of years and helping farmers get chemicals off their farms and out of our food.”

The Aigen Element robotics service will debut on over 20,000 acres of U.S. farmland arriving on farms in April 2024 to transform weed control and real-time farming insights.

About Aigen 

At Aigen, we’re building a future with no harmful chemicals in our food, where farmers thrive, communities prosper, and the planet flourishes.

With roots in farming, electric vehicles, robotics and impact investing, Rich Wurden and Kenny Lee founded Aigen in 2020 to connect farmers to breakthrough technologies, decarbonize agriculture, and improve human and planetary health. Aigen’s Element robotic fleet can autonomously navigate, weed, and analyze row crops without any chemicals or diesel fuel. Offered as a service and powered 100% by solar and wind, Aigen’s vehicles reduce farmers’ workload and their reliance on fossil fuels, while increasing their crop and soil health.

Kirkland-based Aigen is backed by ReGen Ventures, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Cleveland Avenue, Incite, Susquehanna Private Equity Investments LLLP, Bessemer Venture Partners, Global Founders Capital, Industrious Ventures, E2JDJ, and AgFunder.

Learn more at https://aigen.io

About ReGen Ventures
ReGen partners with founders daring to build companies that will restore our planet.
http://regen.vc

SOURCE Aigen

Fund will focus primarily on early-stage projects primed to advance the crypto industry

MENLO PARK, Calif., Nov. 9, 2023 — Lightspeed Faction, a leading blockchain-focused venture capital firm, today announced the launch of its inaugural $285 million venture fund. Faction will primarily invest in early stage blockchain projects and serve as a long-term capital partner as these projects scale. In addition to providing capital, the fund will serve as a seasoned resource to blockchain entrepreneurs on a range of topics from tokenomics to business scaling.

Faction offers founders access to a team of experienced blockchain investors and operators, servicing the industry at a time when many have fled. The team is primed to provide crypto-native advice, with team members hailing from Amber Group, Blockchain.com, and Coinbase, amongst others. 

Lightspeed Faction is a joint venture with Lightspeed Venture Partners, and as a result, combines Faction’s crypto-only approach with Lightspeed’s deep Silicon Valley roots and platform business scaling resources. Faction collaborates with Lightspeed on blockchain-related matters, but operates the fund independently. Faction is a separate partnership, with its own dedicated LP base and has full investment discretion over the $285M of capital raised.

Banafsheh Fathieh, Co-Founder and General Partner of Lightspeed Faction, commented: “We are steadfast in our conviction that crypto is a generation-defining technology, and we are fully committed to investing behind the best entrepreneurs looking to propel blockchain technology forward. The blockchain ecosystem is full of promising projects looking to disrupt everything from financial systems to telecommunication and we look forward to collaborating with them to nurture the next phase of blockchain innovation.”

Faction engages with projects during their earliest stages, typically in Seed and Series A rounds, and invests in businesses that seek to provide positive societal impact using blockchain technology. Faction invests in the top teams and projects across all sectors of the blockchain industry, with a focus on using the technology to provide real utility to users and businesses. Faction has continued to invest throughout the bear market and already boasts an established track record of investments across the blockchain ecosystem, including investments in Crossmint, Lens, Narya.ai, Skip.money, Matter Labs, and more.

Faction’s founding partners, Samuel Harrison and Banafsheh Fathieh, have deployed over $500M of capital across early-stage and blockchain venture capital throughout their careers. They have consistently invested through multiple crypto cycles with unwavering conviction, generating a long track record of backing the leading players in the space, including Aave, Arbitrum, Blockdaemon, Figure, Immutable, NEAR, Republic, Wintermute, and Matter Labs amongst others.

Samuel Harrison, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Lightspeed Faction, added: “We aim to be a collaborative partner from the start of the founder journey to exit. Building in blockchain is hard, but we went into the space because we see it as a great enabling technology, which can be used to achieve positive societal outcomes, such as enabling cheaper, more efficient financial services with the added benefit of greater transparency and unfettered access. We’re particularly excited by net new behaviors and outcomes enabled by the unique properties of blockchain technology. We’ve been doing this for a long time and intend to be a dependable financing partner in the cycles yet to come.”

About Lightspeed Faction
Lightspeed Faction is the leading blockchain-native venture capital firm that merges Silicon Valley VC experience with deep blockchain expertise. Faction typically invests in early-stage startups across the blockchain ecosystem that are in their Seed or Series A funding rounds. Faction is firmly committed to the growth of the crypto space, investing in projects with the potential to meaningfully contribute to and advance the industry and society at large.

For more information, please visit: https://www.faction.vc

About Lightspeed
Lightspeed Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in the Enterprise, Consumer, Health, and Fintech sectors. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 500 companies globally including Affirm, Carta, Cato Networks, Epic Games, Faire, Forty Seven, Guardant Health, Mulesoft, Navan, Netskope, Nutanix, Rubrik, Sharechat, Snap, Udaan, Ultima Genomics and more. Lightspeed and its global team currently manage $25B in AUM across the Lightspeed platform, with investment professionals and advisors in the U.S., Europe, India, Israel, and Southeast Asia. www.lsvp.com

About Lightspeed Faction’s Relationship with Lightspeed
Faction Ventures, LLC (“Faction”) and Lightspeed Management Company, L.L.C. (“Lightspeed”) are separate businesses that operate independently of each other. Faction is a registered investment adviser under the United States Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended. Faction advises its own fund(s) and does not advise any Lightspeed clients, and Lightspeed does not advise Faction or any of its clients. 

Contact: press@faction.vc

SOURCE Lightspeed Faction

With burnout, attrition, and healthcare costs rising, Betterleave acts as an extension of teams that want to provide comprehensive bereavement care and close the gap in mental health

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 9, 2023 — Betterleave, a pioneering platform that partners with organizations to improve access, experience, and outcomes, while lowering the total cost of bereavement care, today announced it has raised $2.4 million in funding. The round was led by Chingona Ventures, with participation from Bread and Butter Ventures, Vitalize VC, Wisdom Ventures Fund, Coyote Ventures and AARP. Betterleave brings a differentiated, integrated approach to grief and mental health, by offering a comprehensive digital and clinical care solution that addresses the complex challenges individuals face when preparing for and navigating bereavement.

Bereavement is a growing category of care designed to help organizations connect with and support members during the grieving process. The need for such services is evident, with more than 30M+ working Americans caring for an adult, making caregivers the fastest-growing employee population. Despite the prevalence of grief, there has been a critical gap in support and resources to navigate the professional, financial, and emotional challenges of loss. Recent national legislative changes and the impact of Covid-19 have further underscored the relevance of grief management in the workplace.

“Bereavement is one of those topics that many don’t even think about until the moment they need the care. I experienced the challenges of grief firsthand when my mother passed away after a terminal cancer diagnosis,” said Cara McCarty Abbott, founder and CEO of Betterleave. “Grief is complex and has a broad impact across a person’s life. It’s long past time that we shine a light on the mental health care gap in the workplace, so drawing from my background as an HR leader, I founded Betterleave to address the burdens that grieving individuals face, both before and after loss.”

Unlike single-point solutions that primarily offer logistical services such as will drafting and funeral planning, Betterleave is a comprehensive digital health platform that focuses on navigating logistics, processing grief and driving positive clinical outcomes. It covers the entire bereavement spectrum, from pre-need to immediate need, loss navigation, and continuous grief support. The platform specializes in various types of grief, including but not limited to the loss of a loved one, pregnancy loss, pet loss, anticipatory loss and relationship loss. Betterleave also supports patients and caregivers, facilitating the seamless transfer of critical information via programmatically sent messages and family collaboration features. Hospices benefit from this platform as they are required to provide bereavement support for 13 months following a loss.

Seventy-five percent of members engaging with the Betterleave platform and providers see an improvement in their systems with access to licensed therapists, grief support groups, family counseling, as well as wellness, doula and spiritual services.

“Betterleave is reimagining what bereavement care can and should be by bringing industry-leading partners from death care, insurance, health systems, hospices, and mental health networks together to create a holistic platform,” said Samara Mejia Hernandez, Founding Partner of Chingona Ventures. “The market traction that Cara and her team have been able to achieve in just over a year clearly demonstrates the massive demand for an end-to-end solution like Betterleave. We’re excited to support their vision.”

Betterleave not only supports individuals, but their employers too, by helping them build and launch bereavement care programs. As of 2022, about 90 percent of employers provide paid bereavement leave, but allow just three days on average. This means that many workers have to return to work before they feel ready, which affects their physical health and ability to be productive once they return. Betterleave acts as an extension of an employer and provides a comprehensive platform with analytics, communication templates and measurable outcomes. Betterleave’s employer customers span industries — from tech companies and manufacturers, to school systems and financial institutions — and include notable brands Affirm, Spot, Interfor, Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation and Amplify Credit Union.

“One of the challenges as a HR Professional is being able to do enough for your employees with only a certain amount of bandwidth,” said Angela Shaw, Vice President of Talent at Amplify Credit Union. “Our partnership with Betterleave allows us to extend to a level of care and support as a department that we want to give to our employees.”

Betterleave was launched by Abbott in 2022 after she spent more than a decade of experience in human relations and organizational psychology. She previously co-founded Code Pilot, a training and recruitment platform for hiring teams, which was acquired by AngelList. She teamed up with Betterleave Head of Product, Sam Leung, to scale product features and deliver a comprehensive bereavement care solution that combines both tech-enabled support and clinical mental health expertise.

“With so many people taking on a caregiver role or experiencing bereavement of their aging family members, people are now expecting mental health and logistics support from their employers and their healthcare providers. However, we know today there’s a pretty big gap meeting needs and are facing costly outcomes,” said Leung.

The team also consists of a global network of coaches and therapists with significant experience in grief and loss. The company has already gained significant traction by partnering with hospices, insurers, and hospital systems to establish bereavement care as a new category of employee benefits. It is in-network with Humana, Aetna, Cigna, United, and BCBSTX. It plans to expand its clinical care model and refine its grief training curriculum to meet the growing demand over the coming months.

About Betterleave
Betterleave is a groundbreaking platform that provides comprehensive bereavement care support to individuals and organizations. With a focus on grief and mental health, Betterleave offers personalized administrative and counseling services, helping individuals navigate the complex challenges of grief and loss. The platform is designed to transform the bereavement care space by connecting industry-leading partners and providing a full spectrum of support, from end-of-life planning to post-loss programs. For more information, visit betterleave.com.

James Christopherson
PR Manager
Betterleave
[email protected]

SOURCE Betterleave

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 9, 2023 — Pioneer, the AI-powered service for climate tech companies pursuing government incentives, today announced the close of $2.9M in seed funding led by Blue Bear Capital. Participating investors include Collaborative Fund, Soma Capital, Cool Climate Collective, and Kayan Ventures. The funds will be used to accelerate the company’s growth.

Founded in 2022, Pioneer combines large language models (LLMs) with process execution expertise to help climate tech companies win more non-dilutive funding more efficiently, from the vast ecosystem of government and non-governmental funding. Specifically, Pioneer enables companies to match their sector focus, business model, and capital needs with potential funding sources, and then apply across thousands of grants, contracts, and other incentives from hundreds of sources at a federal, state, and local level. Pioneer’s emphasis on LLMs allows them to handle a lot of the bureaucracy associated with the application process through software, and the company’s co-founders have extensive experience working in artificial intelligence–Dimitar “Mitko” Simeonov (CEO) received a Masters in AI and natural language models from MIT and deployed AI to hundreds of millions of users while working for Twitter; Kyle Treige (COO) previously founded two startups and worked at an early-stage VC firm.

“For thousands of climate tech companies, access to non-dilutive funding can make or break their growth trajectory,” said Mitko Simeonov, CEO, Pioneer. “Our seed round will enable us to speed up development and serve more entrepreneurs looking to rapidly deploy and scale key climate solutions.”

In 2022, non-defense federal grants and contracts to private businesses exceeded $220B and the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) bucketed roughly $359B for energy security and climate change work. Despite such massive funding opportunities, applying for and securing government financing is often a labyrinthine process, fraught with complexities and challenges that deter many companies from applying. Since launching their service in February 2023, Pioneer enables companies to quickly discover and strategically apply for funding opportunities, helping companies to continue growing and focusing on their core business.                                                             

“There is a lot of hype in both AI and climate tech, but what Mitko and the team at Pioneer have built is truly impactful,” said Ernst Sack, Partner at Blue Bear Capital. “Parsing and matching huge amounts of written data for a process that’s non-core to your daily operations: that is a perfect job for LLMs. Informed by Pioneer’s industry expertise, their LLMs are already revealing millions of dollars of new funding for companies that otherwise don’t have the bandwidth or experience to navigate the complexity of grant, program, and credit funding.”

About Pioneer
Pioneer is helping coordinate funding for rapid decarbonization of our economy, working with its clients to win grants, contracts, and loans for climate tech companies. The company serves as an extension of their clients’ teams, managing the end-to-end process and automating tedious tasks, ultimately saving time and resources. Founded in 2022, Pioneer’s team has deep expertise working across AI, startups, and in climate ranging from strategic and grant consulting to energy efficiency technologies. For more information, please visit www.pioneerclimate.com.

About Blue Bear Capital
Blue Bear is a venture capital and early growth equity firm driving the expansion of digital technologies into multibillion-dollar verticals across the energy, infrastructure, and climate industries. The team comes from leading energy private equity firms and features technology expertise from the tech startup world alongside operational leadership from large-scale technology developers and adopters. Blue Bear’s portfolio covers operational AI, IoT, and cybersecurity technologies, all deployed with enterprise customers to drive connectivity and efficiency across the world’s most critical industries. More information can be found at www.bluebearcap.com

Business Contact 
[email protected]

Media Contact
Chris Allieri
[email protected]

SOURCE Pioneer

All of the generative AI features launched this summer are now available to Evolv AI customers who value experimentation and testing as integral to building exceptional digital experiences

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 9, 2023 — Evolv AI, the maker of the world’s leading intelligent digital experience optimization and personalization platform, today announced the closing and conversion of their previously issued convertible notes and a new equity round, for a total of $13.3 million in new funding. Led by Horizons Ventures, the round brings their total funding to date to $23.3M. New and existing investors like Horizons Ventures, NJF Capital, Engage VC, Major Group Asia, and others participated in the round.

In addition, Kerry Liu from Horizons Ventures will join Evolv AI’s board of directors and Kathryn Murphy, SVP of product and design at Twilio, has joined the company as an advisor.

“This new investment will allow Evolv AI to grow its go-to-market capabilities, reach more customers, and accelerate the development of the company’s groundbreaking AI platform,” said Michael Scharff, co-founder of Evolv AI. “This news comes after Evolv AI added market-leading generative AI capabilities to its product, allowing customers to use the power of AI all within one platform.”

Evolv AI is the first AI-led experience optimization platform that recommends, builds, deploys and optimizes customer experiences that impact customer behavior, and drives business outcomes. Brands like Verizon, Lululemon, and DirectTV have partnered with Evolv AI to support their AI initiatives. On average, they see six- to nine-figure revenue growth annually.

“Evolv AI reduces the cost and risk of running ill-performing A/B testing by instead offering a solution that continually refines our digital experiences with real-time insights,” said Jason Vickers, director of technology and product management at Tea Collection. “The results have been incredible. Not only has Evolv AI’s unique testing capabilities enabled us to experiment at a scale and scope that was previously unimaginable, but we’re also seeing steady incremental growth and elevating customer satisfaction to new heights.”

“By leveraging Evolv AI’s Continuous Optimization technology, we’ve achieved remarkable outcomes across our streaming service,” says Andre Silva, CTO at Curiosity Stream. “We’ve run roughly 1,500 experiments with Evolv AI, which has yielded millions of dollars in incremental growth. It’s truly a testament to the power of data-driven experimentation in the digital realm.”

All of the generative AI features launched this summer are now available to Evolv AI customers who value experimentation and testing as integral to building exceptional digital experiences and seek to capitalize on the massive opportunity that AI provides.

“Including generative AI in our product offerings empowers teams to automate the design thinking process and create a fully automated experimentation process. By prioritizing user needs, embracing innovation, and iteratively improving the customer experience, businesses can create online platforms that genuinely resonate with their audience and drive sustainable growth,” said Tyler Foster, president and chief technology officer of Evolv AI.

About Evolv AI
Evolv Al powers intelligent experiences that enable organizations to learn from every session to improve conversions continuously. Digital leaders rely on Evolv AI to define their experimentation strategy, generate a constant source of new ideas to explore, and leverage our proprietary AI to progressively improve digital optimization to find the best customer journey. Utilizing a proprietary machine learning engine and client visitor data, Evolv AI delivers digital growth goals at a high velocity for companies such as AS Watson, Curiosity Stream, DIRECTV, and Verizon. Learn more at evolv.ai.

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SOURCE Evolv AI