So far, we have these companies in our portfolio:
Spell
builds infrastructure for AI and deep learning that used to be available only if you worked at a big company. Spell says: “AI and deep learning technology shouldn’t be mysterious and locked away but open and available for everyone to try.”
In this article Spell Founder & CEO Serkan Piantino, who previously led the AI engineering team at Facebook, says: “The public dialogue around AI is that it is mysterious and complicated, and deep learning is actually scary. In fact this is an accessible new field. Virtually anyone can develop the skills to tinker with it.”
Orchid is creating “a world where users own the internet”—decentralized, open-source technology for an internet free from surveillance, censorship, and businesses that harvest and sell your data.
“This is about anti-surveillance and anti-censorship, the ability to not be tracked, not just in China and the Middle East” said Orchid Co-Founder & CEO Steve Waterhouse. Co-investor Matt Huang (Sequoia) added “I think a free Internet is a really important thing for society …this type of network is one of the most exciting first applications of blockchain computational sharing economies.”
Aware is preventing deadly wildfires with inexpensive mesh sensors that combine imaging and laser sensing on power lines and utility poles.
“Aging infrastructure is failing under increasing environmental hazards. If we can monitor our physical infrastructure at all times, we can predict and prevent, assess and respond and record and archive. We can replace expensive yearly inspections with lower cost daily monitoring” says CEO Tero Heinonen
CryptoKitties are breedable and oh-so-adorable collectibles on the blockchain. Each cat is 100% owned by you; it cannot be replicated or destroyed.
“Everyone thought CryptoKitties was about buying cats,” CEO Roham Gharegozolou told Bloomberg in November. “But it’s only the first step in a bigger vision. We believe that blockchain is going to change the everyday life for everyday people. We see it as a new platform the way social networks were, or the way mobile was a few years ago.”
Running Tide is robotizing aquaculture. Humanity’s diet is shifting off industrial meat. Robotically farmed oysters and shellfish will be a natural source of protein at scale.
Founder Marty Odlin says “We’ve made abundant the things that should be scarce, and we’ve made scarce the things that should be abundant. What if it were possible to produce delicious, healthy, protein-rich organic food for the entire human population, in a way that simultaneously rehabilitated the ecosystem?
Andrena offers wireless home internet at a fraction of the cost, securely shared by neighbors, and engineered for Net Neutrality.
“Who says ISPs have to own the infrastructure?” – asks founder Neil Chatterjee in his vision for a decentralized internet. “Can we come together with the technology we have today to deliver Internet to each other so we don’t need them? These are the questions we aim to address, and we’re starting with communities.”
Lovevery makes child development products distilled to their simplest, purest purpose: to be exactly what children need at each stage.
“There is something magical about a toy if it’s done right, because it can help clue the parent into what the baby is hungry to do” – founder Jessica Rolph tells Time Magazine
Superhuman is the fastest email experience ever made, with advanced features that give you communication superpowers.
Founder Rahul Vohra told Techcrunch: “We were asking ourselves the question: what would Gmail look like if it was built today, not twelve years ago? We decided it would be blazingly fast; it would be visually gorgeous; the whole thing would work offline; you wouldn’t need a multitude of browser extensions to get things done; and people would be materially faster at doing their email.”
Public Goods gets you all the products you consume daily from shampoo to toilet paper to olive oil, with minimal branding, beautiful design and healthy ingredients.
“Our obsession is with quality, not price,” founder Morgan Hirsh says. “When price is the focus, companies tend to cut corners, and we’re not willing to do that. The e-commerce giants want to carry everything, so they can’t stand for anything. We’re building a one-stop shop where you can actually trust what you’re getting is good.”
