Steve Pantelick

Thrilled to announce that Together Fund is investing in Sentra, alongside a16z speedrun! You track results in Jira. Decisions in Notion. Conversations in Slack. But the reasoning, the debates, trade-offs, and context behind why you chose A over B, disappears into what we call "Dark Matter." A decision made in March looks insane by July because no one remembers the constraints that made it smart. I lived this firsthand at Twitter scaling from 800 to 8,000 employees, and at Google while launching AI Overviews to billions at planet scale. The problem isn't process. Process is compensation for something deeper: organizational amnesia. An organization’s "Systems of Record" doesn’t solve this, they encode it. They store what happened, never why. That's why we are investing in Sentra. Sentra is the always-on collective memory that eliminates organizational amnesia by maintaining accurate context for all members and agents, functioning as an operational nervous system. It connects to every channel where work happens, meetings, Slack, email, code commits, docs, calendars, and treats them not as artifacts to search, but as living signals to synthesize. The fleeting and the permanent, unified into a memory that understands. The founding team is built for this: - Jae Gwan Park (CEO): Product-first founder, memory systems research at UofT and MIT - Ashwin Gopinath (CSO): Former MIT professor, created "Reflexion" (NeurIPS 2023), agents that learn from mistakes, 2x founder - Andrey Starenky (CTO): Early Vapi engineer, ex-IBM, built to process enterprise-scale data firehose Together is an operator-led fund. We invest in problems we've lived. This is one of them. Many congrats Jae, Ashwin and Andrey, we are so excited to partner with you! Read the full thesis: https://lnkd.in/gixj9cE4 Book a demo: https://www.sentra.app/ #OrganizationalMemory #AI #Sentra #TogetherFund #a16z #ContextGraphs

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From the beginning, we believed Lumana was building much more than a smarter surveillance tool. Lumana's platform reflects the next evolution in video intelligence — physical AI. This approach enables systems to go beyond basic detection capabilities to understanding context, infer intent, and deliver real-time insights that improve safety and operations at scale. Further, we decided to take the longer and more difficult direction of building a whole new generation and fully featured Video Management System (VMS). With the company’s $40M Series A, led by our friend Peter Wagner from Wing Venture Capital and our seed partners from SCAPITALVC, we’re doubling down on a platform that’s already proving its value in the real world. We are serving now close to ten thousands enterprise cameras in production! Founders like Sagi Ben Moshe bring a rare mix of vision and execution to the table. From our earliest conversations as an EIR at Norwest, it was clear that Lumana had the potential to reshape how organizations use video. Congratulations to the team on this well-deserved milestone. https://lnkd.in/gwHdaGPZ

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Today Isembard announced a $50m Series A fundraise led by Union Square Ventures, less than a year after Notion Capital led their Seed round. 💥This is a company right at the intersection of AI & supply chain sovereignty & they’re exceeding even our most optimistic expectations. By the end of the year they will have 25 factories across the UK, US, Germany, France & Ukraine. 💥Isembard is rapidly scaling its network of AI-first factories for precision manufacturing at the same time as market demand is accelerating. Macro forces (reshoring, rising defence spend, concentration risk in Asia, and the growth of neo-primes) are structurally increasing demand for fast, local, flexible manufacturing that the current industry is unable to deliver on. 💥The innovation is in the way the company builds and franchises factories as a product with tightly integrated units of machines, software, robotics, & process intelligence that turn design files into certified components with speed & reliability. 💥Their AI software platform, MasonOS, connects all sites into a single operating system, replacing fragmented shops with standardised, high-performance industrial nodes & enabling real-time quoting, predictable delivery, & low defect rates. By owning the full production stack, Isembard delivers premium manufacturing performance with the scalability & flexibility of a software platform. 💥We are at the top of the AI hype cycle and there are understandable concerns about the ROI on the vast sums of money being invested into this new super-cycle. But, the ROI for Isembard is both clear and compelling. They will deliver components 10x faster and at 50% of the cost of current suppliers. They will also build a de-centralised, global network of factories to meet the growing demand for national or regional sovereignty. 💥This is a company with a clear vision to disrupt a massive, fragmented $1.8tn component manufacturing market. Today marks another huge stride towards that vision. And they are only just getting started. We’re thrilled to be on this journey with Alexander Fitzgerald & the team & we’re also excited to welcome Rebecca Kaden & USV into the investor base. Notion Capital Union Square Ventures Alexander Fitzgerald Rebecca Kaden Maximilian Eichler Stephen Millard Britt Mulder

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This one is close to my heart! It’s always a great feeling to see an early investment raise follow-on capital, but it feels even more special when you’ve known the founder for 16 years - from business school, to the first job, to backing him as an angel in his first startup (which, yes, went bust 😬) Inamo wasn’t an easy bet in the beginning. There were real questions around the model - whether it was “venture investable,” how large the outcome could be, and what the path to scale would look like. What we were certain about, though, was that quick commerce was seeing unprecedented growth and consumer love, and that C Sumit Anand and Rupesh Thakare were battle-hardened operators who would out-execute anyone else in the market. The “how” - good founders always figure that out.. Glad that we took the leap and grateful to the Inamo team for giving us a ringside view of the journey. The execution so far has been exceptional, and we’re excited to welcome Brij Bhushan and Pankaj Agarwal from PrimeVP as Inamo enters its next chapter. To enabling Quick for everyone! 🚀 Shastra VC PrimeVP Antler Gemba Capital

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Growth at all costs is out. Strategic expansion is in. One stat from our new report that says it all: By $100M ARR, 67% of growth comes from expansion, not net-new customers. We’re seeing a mindset shift among top-performing founders. They’re prioritizing customer success early, building in product-led growth loops, and measuring how they grow, not just how fast. Full analysis and benchmarks here: https://lnkd.in/gZruurYs #AI #SaaS #CustomerSuccess #BeyondBenchmarks

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Every hire, product feature, and GTM experiment is a capital allocation decision, most teams just don’t call it that. I’m kicking off a 3-part series on capital allocation for founders, operators, and finance leaders with a simple question: ➡️ Will the next $1 you deploy become worth more than $1? Series overview Part 1: defines the core concept + the math Part 2: where capital goes + how to measure whether it’s working Part 3: AIMS framework for communicating allocation decisions to management teams and your board Part 1 (attached here) lays the practical foundation: 🔹 The $1 invested test and ROIIC vs. hurdle rates (scoreboard vs. decision lens) 🔹 A lightweight “investment brief” to evaluate bets (GROW / BUILD / BUY) 🔹 The small metric toolkit that translates finance into operating decisions (NPV / payback / ROIIC / incremental margin) 🔹 Early-stage proxies when DCF inputs are unknowable (burn multiple + revenue quality) 🔹 Operator “vital signs” to spot drift early (profit engine, leverage, cash conversion, optics) Series Roadmap ✔️ This series (Parts 1–3): breadth-first. shared, lightweight framework to define value creation, choose decision-grade metrics, and communicate tradeoffs clearly ✔️ Next series: depth-first. momentum drivers + operational decisions that need near real-time measurement to spot drift early and course-correct fast Read Part 1 here and Part 2 and 3 on substack. Next Series will be out next week. 💰 What’s one bet you’re funding right now, and how will you prove it’s working?

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Thrilled to announce our investment in CtrlB! Privilege partnering with founders like Adarsh, who are deeply obsessed with the problem they’re solving - a true force of nature. CtrlB is redefining enterprise observability, building a next-gen telemetry engine that makes search up to 10x faster and 90% cheaper. In an era where enterprises generate terabytes of data every day, CtrlB is closing the gap with a fundamentally new approach to ingesting, indexing, and querying petabyte-scale data - enabling teams to gain real-time visibility without trade-offs between cost and speed. #funding #startups

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LLMs are changing the game in accounting and finance. Rillet rebuilt the GL from the ground up for the AI era, built for automation, compliance, and speed. From native integrations to embedded AI workflows and agents, every part of the platform is designed to move faster and work smarter. The next generation of pre-IPO companies are already running and growing with Rillet. Windsurf scaled 10x with transactional detail flowing directly into Rillet in real time. Huge thanks to Nicolas Kopp, stephen hedlund, and the rest of the Rillet team for an incredible session. We’re grateful to everyone who joined and shared their questions. Next month we’re back with Michelle Valentine and Brad Silicani from Anrok to talk about how they’re redefining how modern finance teams manage sales tax. Our CFO community brings together finance leaders shaping the future of their industries. Applications are open, link in the comments. 🎥 Check out the short demo below 👇

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🦄 $150M to improve tutoring and education globally. Preply just announced a new round, putting the company on a clear trajectory to become an iconic global marketplace. In a world obsessed with fast wins and volatile growth, some companies quietly beat their goals year after year — for more than 6 years in this case (as long as we’ve at Acurio Ventures been partners). A few learnings from this journey, relevant for founders and investors: Pick a growing market with an unsolved problem. 2 out of 8 billion people globally are learning a second language. Despite many options, outcomes are still poor. Our original thesis was simple: if you build the reference platform, everyone who wants to learn will eventually come to you. Category leadership matters. When we backed Kirill Bigai and Dmytro Voloshyn back in 2019 (together with Rob Kniaz), there were dozens of similar startups. Small details showed Preply had already built a superior tutor base and a scalable growth engine. Build a product customers love. Speaking a language and teaching it are very different things. Preply transformed the learning experience by combining a motivated base of +100,000 tutors with tools that actually drive outcomes. Never stop experimenting. Few companies maintain a strong experimentation culture as they scale. Preply’s DNA reminded me of Booking.com — enabling them to execute 10x better than most marketplaces. Great companies turn every change into an opportunity. From riding the post-COVID shift to online learning, to betting early and heavily on AI as Dmytro Voloshyn has excelled at. What once sounded like sci-fi is now reality. Great companies become talent magnets A company maturity can't be addressed only by looking at the revenue, profit or product. I like to see how much better they become at attracting talent and retaining it. Proud that Acurio Ventures made this possible and the WestCap team saw things as bullish as we do and are now supporting the next phase of Preply’s journey. Huge congratulations to the entire Preply team!!

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Numeric is transforming the role of the modern finance professional, from a passenger who observes the business to a driver who engineers business outcomes. Super excited to share that IVP is leading the company’s Series B; deepening our partnership as Numeric expands from close management into a connected finance platform — unifying close, analytics, and now cash management. Their new cash management product tackles one of the most painful workflows in accounting. Where legacy tools automate less than 30% of transactions, Numeric achieves 90%+, saving teams days of manual work every month. As a former CFO, I’ve felt the pain of disconnected systems and manual reconciliations firsthand. Numeric is redefining what modern finance looks like: connected, intelligent, and built for real-time decision-making. We’re backing Parker Gilbert and his team as they bring clarity and connection to the heart of finance. More from Ryan Lawler at Axios: https://lnkd.in/gARRsj24 

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We’re thrilled to back Anil Varanasi and the Meter team as they take on one of the most overlooked bottlenecks in modern business: enterprise networking. For too long, IT teams have been burdened by fragmented systems, unpredictable costs, and outdated infrastructure. Meter’s vertically integrated, Network-as-a-Service model changes that—bringing simplicity, predictability, and intelligence to a space that desperately needs it. This isn’t just about better networks; it’s about laying the groundwork for autonomous, AI-optimized infrastructure. Proud to support this exceptional team alongside General Catalyst, Microsoft, Sequoia Capital, J.P. Morgan, and Tishman Speyer . Read more about why we invested here: https://lnkd.in/erhYMDxz.

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Big news for Nscale: We are delighted to welcome Lauren R Hurwitz as our new Chief Operating Officer. I’m excited about what Lauren will bring across the whole business as we scale. And on a personal note, I’ve known Lauren for a long time and we have often debated how best to architect for government needs, reconciling sovereignty/policy requirements with truly cutting-edge technology. That’s why, from my vantage point in Europe, I’m particularly energised by what her experience leading Palantir’s international public sector business can bring to Nscale. While public sector AI adoption across EMEA is accelerating, success depends on more than raw compute — it requires a trusted, compliant way to utilise AI services with strong governance and operational excellence. We’re also aligned on how agents embedded within operations can help advance localised compliance. By codifying and automating process & controls (access, approvals, drift checks, logging/evidence), they reduce ad-hoc human intervention and the risk of error or interference — while improving auditability and consistency at scale. Welcome, Lauren—can’t wait to build & solve together.

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I’m thrilled to share that White Star Capital is backing AMI - Advanced Machine Intelligence in their historic $1.03bn seed round 🚀 - Led by the legendary Yann LeCun and Alex LeBrun. AMI isn't building another LLM, they're building World Models. Why this matters: *Beyond Text: Grounded in JEPA architecture to solve physical-world problems. *Global Powerhouse: A dream team from Meta FAIR, OpenAI, and DeepMind. *Sovereign Tech: A credible European-led alternative to US Big Tech. Excited to be part of this journey along with the rest of the WSC team Eric Martineau-Fortin, Matthieu Lattes, Bérénice Moustial and Victoria Pozzi Rocco Belforti. 🌍✨ https://lnkd.in/eiCKZKSQ #VentureCapital #AI

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Announcing our portco Zeno has raised next round of $25mn with participation from Congruent Ventures Lowercarbon Capital Trifecta Capital ! Advantedge Founders continues to back the team with $2mn additional investment. Its been terrific working with Michael Spencer & Greg Moran to establish the full stack model in Africa. With this raise expansion in new markets and planning for India launch is next steps. https://lnkd.in/gGr6qiBj

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🚀 Today, we’re very happy to be announcing our $13M seed round, led by Headline with support from C4 Ventures, Futury Capital, and incredible angels from across the procurement ecosystem. You can read more about it in the Axios article: 👉 https://lnkd.in/duj4kCHc Or in our Procure Ai company news: 👉 https://lnkd.in/dpWZuQw3 For me, this moment is deeply tied to why we built Procure Ai — not just as a company, but as a product and a technical vision. Again and again, procurement leaders told us the same thing: “We’re being asked to do 3× more with the same (or fewer) people.” Rising complexity, fragmented data, unpredictable timelines, and now global tariffs… procurement teams have been forced to operate in systems that were never designed for this level of pressure. Coming from a product and engineering background, we believed the only real solution was an AI-native architecture — one that sits on top of existing landscapes, enriches messy data, and deploys autonomous agents that can truly take work off people’s plates. The most rewarding part has been seeing that belief materialise: 35–45% faster cycles, 3.5–5% savings, 60% autonomous intake, and platforms that integrate seamlessly without forcing teams to rebuild everything. And most importantly: seeing users feel empowered instead of overwhelmed. This round not only gives us the means to accelerate our growth and expand beyond the DACH region — it will also accelerate our product roadmap, grow our engineering team, and bring AI-native procurement automation to more organisations across Europe. A huge thank you to our investors, early believers, and especially our team: a group of people obsessed with building technology that actually works for procurement. Thank you for being part of this journey. We’re just getting started. — Yves

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In the San Francisco Bay Area, founders are relentless about growing and scaling their companies. They spot opportunity, scale through uncertainty, and create companies that redefine industries. Recently, we gathered a group of founders and tech leaders to discuss the intersection of company growth and long-term personal success. Eric S. Yuan, Founder and CEO of Zoom Communications, shared the inspiring story behind his company’s growth and eventual IPO. Eric reiterated that the founders who create the most impact don’t just plan for an exit – they prepare for what comes after. Too often, personal wealth planning lags company growth, and that gap can become costly at the most pivotal moments. The rest of the evening was focused on closing that gap. Our colleagues in Goldman Sachs Investment Banking, Pawan Tewari and Nick Giovanni, shared a candid outlook for M&A and IPOs in this environment, along with important steps founders should take to prepare for a strategic exit. We ended with a conversation around the key considerations for maximizing founders’ personal outcomes. Pre-transaction planning isn’t defensive - it’s opportunistic. Your company’s exit strategy and your family’s long-term planning work should not be done in isolation. When investment banking and private wealth work in sync, founders can cohesively optimize outcomes on all sides of the equation. To learn more about the practical “do’s and don'ts” for founders, we are happy to share our ‘Goldman guide’ for navigating wealth planning, business exists, and IPOs: https://lnkd.in/ewhEGjV3. Thank you, Eric, and to all the founders who joined us at The Battery in SF. On behalf of Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management and Investment Banking, we look forward to the next conversation.

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With more than 4M users across 200 countries, Recraft has been in a sustained hypergrowth mode for the last 2 years, growing over 10x When we invested back in 2023, founder Anna Veronika Dorogush had already identified a gap in AI tooling for creatives early on, recognizing the need high precision and control by industry professionals. Their proprietary GenAI model is setting a new quality standard in the image generation space - outperforming industry behemoth DALL-E and Midjourney Glad to welcome Accel in their $30M round, alongside Madrona, Khosla Ventures, Nat Friedman, Elad Gil and many others cc: RTP Global Galina Chifina Tom Sheridan

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🚨NEW EPISODE: Recorded live at FUTURE TITANS 2026 - Jeff Perry of Carta sat down with the iconic Seth Levine, co-founder of Foundry. Seth has been in venture for 25 years, built Foundry from scratch as an emerging manager himself, and has backed about 50 emerging manager funds through his fund of funds. He has genuinely seen every side of this table. They went deep on building Foundry, why VCs are in the influence business, not the decision business, and why the concentration problem in venture is not only bad for LPs, but also for the innovation ecosystem overall. And why Seth's new book, Capital Evolution, is so important for the future of America. 🎧 Links to listen... Apple: https://lnkd.in/ehQUQ2EM Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eU4FExpg

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Ditch the Buzzwords: Investor Insights on Real Innovation, Expertise, and Traction for Business Success The latest insights from TechCrunch Disrupt’s investor panel hit home for anyone navigating competitive industries, not just in startups. Cut through the noise: if you are tempted to load your pitch or strategy with flashy buzzwords, think twice. Real innovation speaks for itself, as domain expertise and execution matter far more than surface level jargon. Three key expectations stood out. First, is there a truly significant problem and market opportunity? Investors (and strategic partners) don’t want small solutions, they want to see potential for transformative, scalable impact. Second, what makes you or your team uniquely qualified to succeed? In crowded markets, differentiation is not optional; it’s a competitive necessity. Third, validation: Whether through revenue, customer feedback, or any concrete proof, credibility is earned by showing real world traction. This thinking extends well past startup fundraising. In mature industries, such as financial process optimization, real differentiation comes from expertly tackling complex problems with the right people and right tools. It’s not just about being better it’s about enabling new and more efficient ways of working, and being honest about where you sit relative to your competitors. Different beats better. Finally, focus is critical, build your product and refine your core offering relentlessly. Stay connected to peers, keep learning, and don’t lose sight of the fundamentals: solving valuable problems, demonstrating expertise, and generating tangible results. #ThoughtLeadership #StartupStrategy #BusinessGrowth #Innovation #ProductDevelopment

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