This month at January Ventures: Pano AI featured in the WSJ, Guidewheel CEO speaks at TED2025, January Ventures named to Power100 asset managers list, and more!
Portfolio Highlights
Oula Health, which provides personalized, convenient, comprehensive maternity care, was recognized as one of Fierce Healthcare’s Fierce 15 Companies of 2025. The Fierce 15 recognizes companies companies that are shaking up the industry, bringing fresh, innovative approaches to tackle long-standing problems in healthcare. Congratulations to the Oula Health team for this wonderful recognition.
Pano AI’s cameras took center stage in a recent WSJ feature on AI-powered wildfire detection. The article posits that as temperatures rise and wildfires intensify, officials are increasingly looking to Pano’s technology to aid in spotting fires early, especially in vulnerable areas. “They give our residents and the city staff a much better feeling that someone is always watching,” said Mayor David Bradley of Rancho Palos Verdes.
At the General Motors Innovation Day, Guidewheel, a cloud-based manufacturing optimization platform, presented state-of-the-art manufacturing solutions to attendees. Joined by other companies presenting innovative technologies and product demonstrations, this was a key opportunity to engage directly with technologies that improve manufacturing processes and provide insights into the future of manufacturing.
In more big Guidewheel news, CEO and co-founder Lauren Dunford will hit the TED2025 stage next month in Vancouver. This year’s theme, “Humanity Reimagined,” poses the questions: What are Humans for? Congratulations to Lauren on this huge achievement, we can’t wait to share her talk when it becomes available later this year.
Dipanwita Das, CEO and co-founder of Sorcero, has been recognized as one of the top 50 Healthcare AI Entrepreneurs of 2025. Sorcero is a leading platform for advanced analytics and AI in the life sciences. Sorcero serves 23% of the world’s top life sciences companies with AI powering personalized medicine and medical insights and Dipanwita has been recognized for authoring the company’s six biomedical AI patents in partnership with Google and Springer Nature.
Other Portfolio News
MedCity News spotlighted Systole Health and its mission to change the landscape of women’s heart health.
Treefera’s co-founder and CEO, Jonathan Horn, was featured in a TechRadar Pro article discussing the pivotal roles of satellites, AI, and blockchain in driving sustainability innovation and accelerating climate action.
Quarter20’s Mai Bui was featured on the Tool or Die Podcast.
LEAP Innovations featured Sown to Grow in its EDInnovators Collective Spotlight.
Food for thought
Data-driven VC is over - in an age of commoditized research, emerging VCs with specialization and industry relationships will win
Exceptional startups are needles in a haystack. The best VCs are founder magents.
Carta releases latest performance benchmarks based on over 2,000 VC funds
VC investment in European startups passed $52B in 2024, continuing long-term growth trend
How to Build the Future with Aravind Srinivas
Where we were
January Ventures cofounders Jennifer and Maren were named Power100 Honorees, among some of the most influential people in the alternative asset management industry. Curated by Blueprint Capital Advisors, the list honors professionals who are leading by example, generating strong portfolio outcomes, and building competitive organizations all while providing opportunity and access for all founders. These leaders are shaping the future of the venture capital system. You can see Maren’s reflections on this recognition here.
Maren spoke at the Tech.eu Summit in London on March 25 about what it takes to scale in Europe, how best to support founders and what sectors we're most optimistic about in the decade ahead.
Jennifer was on the Women’s History Month Power Panel hosted by Trinet, Gunderson Dettmer, and Fidelity Investments on March 26th.
Maren Bannon co-led a workshop on angel investing at the London Business School EQUALL Conference 2025 on March 6.
Jen hosted a series of venture 101 and fundraising sessions at the Harvard Innovation Labs.
Jen attended the Equity Summit, a gathering for thought-leading LPs and GPs, on March 18-20th.
Save the Date
January Ventures is hosting an event this May in Boston to discuss the findings from our 6th Annual Founder Survey. Please reach out if you would like to attend.