Investments
A selection of companies I’ve backed as an investor and operator. Names, links, and statuses below reflect the current operating company or successor where one exists.
Personal investments
| Company | Status | What it does | Recent highlight |
|---|---|---|---|
| PitPro Automation | Active | Automated tire-service systems for commercial fleets. | Raised $4.3M in early-stage funding. |
| Revoy formerly Sixwheel |
Active | Swappable electric-power units that turn Class 8 diesel trucks into hybrids. | Ryder began a commercial route pilot. |
| Medra listed as Medra Health |
Active | Robotics, computer vision, and AI for autonomous laboratory protocols. | Raised a $52M Series A for Physical AI Scientists. |
| Replit | Active | Cloud development environment and AI application-building platform. | Launched Replit Agent for natural-language app creation. |
While at Baidu Ventures
| Company | Status | What it does | Recent highlight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Swarmin.ai | Status unclear | Federated and edge machine-learning infrastructure. | Last recorded funding activity was in 2020. |
| Avail Medsystems / Mendaera | Acquired / defunct | Operating-room telepresence consoles for remote clinical support. | Technology and some staff were acquired by Mendaera. |
| AICRETE | Active | AI-powered quality control and operations for concrete and aggregate plants. | Closed a $5M Seed-II round. |
| PointCloud | Active | Coherent 4D imaging sensors that capture velocity and 3-D spatial data. | Published large-scale coherent imaging research in Nature. |
| Machina Labs | Active | AI-driven robotic arms for tool-free, on-demand metal forming. | Deployed a portable manufacturing system at Warner Robins ALC. |
| AMP formerly AMP Robotics |
Active | AI-powered robotic sorting for recycling facilities. | Raised a $91M Series D to expand sorting deployments. |
| Plotlogic | Active | Sensors and AI for real-time ore classification and geology analysis. | Deployed OreSense at Covalent Lithium’s Mt Holland operation. |
| Spatial | Active | Interactive 3D and virtual environments for web, mobile, and VR. | Launched Analogue for Apple Vision Pro collaboration. |
| Lightform | Defunct | Projection-mapping hardware and design software. | Hardware production ended and cloud services were sunset. |
| AirMap / DroneUp | Acquired | UAS traffic-management and airspace software. | Acquired by DroneUp; the consumer app has since closed. |
| Ripcord | Active | Robotics and AI for scanning, digitizing, and structuring paper records. | Merged with VASTEC to scale robotic document digitization. |
| RBC Signals | Active | Global satellite ground-station network and communications infrastructure. | Partnered with Blue Origin on the Quartz network buildout. |
| Automation Hero | Defunct | Intelligent document processing and robotic process automation. | U.S. entity liquidated and German operation entered insolvency. |
| Covariant | Status unclear | AI and reinforcement-learning software for robotic picking. | Amazon hired its founders and licensed its models; remaining operations are unclear. |
| Veo Robotics / Symbotic | Acquired | Vision-based safety systems for human-robot collaboration. | Acquired by Symbotic; FreeMove IP is being integrated into workcells. |
| Rain AI formerly Rain Neuromorphics |
Defunct | Energy-efficient neuromorphic chips for AI inference. | Ceased operations; patents were acquired by OpenAI. |
| OpenSpace | Active | Visual intelligence for automatically capturing and analyzing job-site progress. | Launched OpenSpace Field for field execution. |
| CubeWorks | Active | Ultra-low-power sensing tags and real-time cold-chain trackers. | Closed a new exempt offering and expanded NanoTag. |
| Simple Machines | Status unclear | Composable-computing semiconductor platform for AI inference. | Current operating status cannot be reliably confirmed. |
| WaveWorks formerly Jeeva Wireless |
Active | Battery-free, ultra-low-power wireless connectivity technology. | Continues developing passive IoT hardware building blocks. |
| Zensors | Active | Multimodal physical-AI vision for commercial spaces. | Expanding Spatial AI and virtual-manager products. |
| Kebotix | Active | AI and automation platform for chemical and materials discovery. | Works with industrial R&D teams to digitalize discovery. |
| Numerion Labs formerly Atomwise |
Active / renamed | Deep-learning drug discovery for small-molecule candidates. | Restructured, raised a Series C, and rebranded as Numerion Labs. |
| Strateos | Active | Remotely operated and on-site robotic cloud labs for life sciences. | Focused its model on customer-hosted cloud labs and LodeStar software. |
| Sherlock Biosciences / OraSure | Acquired | CRISPR-based rapid diagnostics for point-of-care testing. | Acquired by OraSure Technologies. |
While at Comet Labs
| Company | Status | What it does | Recent highlight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abundant Robotics | Defunct | Vacuum-based robotic apple harvesting. | Shut down after failing to reach commercial viability. |
| Cobalt AI formerly Cobalt Robotics |
Acquired / rebranded | Enterprise security automation with autonomous patrol and remote monitoring. | Acquired by Dean Drako and rebranded Cobalt AI. |
| Creator formerly Momentum Machines |
Active / pivoting | Automated restaurant technology, originally built around a burger robot. | Relaunching as a B2B automation platform for restaurant brands. |
| Onward Robotics formerly IAM Robotics |
Active / renamed | AMRs and orchestration software for warehouse fulfillment. | Lumabot and Meet Me platforms serve 3PL and retail operations. |
| Grabango | Defunct | Checkout-free technology for grocery and convenience retail. | Shut down after failing to secure additional funding. |
| InsightRx | Active | Bayesian precision-dosing software for hospitals. | Serves hundreds of hospitals across major health systems. |
| Inevitable Tech successor to Iron Ox |
Successor active | Automation technology for controlled-environment agriculture. | Iron Ox wound down as a produce company; assets moved to the successor. |
| Arch Systems | Active | Factory-data platform for guided operational actions. | Expanded its manufacturing AI collaboration with Jabil. |
| Tailos formerly Maidbot |
Active / renamed | Robotics and AI-enabled systems for hospitality operations. | Broadened beyond its original hotel floor-cleaning robot. |
| ADI OtoSense | Acquired | Sound and vibration recognition for predictive maintenance. | Operates as an Analog Devices smart motor-sensor product line. |
| Percolata | Active | ML platform for retail staffing and marketing optimization. | Continues computer-vision-informed retail operations work. |
| Plutoshift AI | Active | Industrial performance monitoring for water and manufacturing. | Developing an Industrial CoPilot for process operations. |
| Point One Navigation | Active | Centimeter-accurate positioning using RTK and sensor fusion. | Polaris RTK network supports robotics, autonomy, and surveying. |
| PRENAV | Active | Autonomous drone inspection for critical infrastructure. | Applies deep learning in GPS-denied and complex environments. |
| Shaper Tools | Active | Computer-vision-guided handheld CNC tools. | Origin and Trace bring digital precision to maker workflows. |
| Simbe Robotics | Active | Retail intelligence via the Tally inventory-scanning robot. | Raised a $50M Series C and expanded retailer deployments. |
| Transcend Robotics | Active | Rugged ground robots for public safety, defense, and hazardous environments. | Vantage robots are deployed for complex reconnaissance work. |
| Matternet | Active | Drone delivery platform for medical logistics. | M2 holds an FAA Type Certificate and supports hospital delivery routes. |