This month at January Ventures: Sano Adds $11M in funding, Unitary AI named #1 in UK startups, why we chose the name January Ventures and more!
Highlights:
🏅 Startups.co.uk has named Unitary AI 1ST place amongst UK startups in the #Startups100 for 2024! “Unitary detects harmful content with a context-aware artificial intelligence so that brands and platforms can be increasingly safe online. Rather than subject human eyes to harmful and offensive internet content, the startup has found a way to leverage AI to create a seamless moderation process that can accurately judge huge volumes of media.” Unitary was founded in 2019 by Sasha Haco and James Thewlis - congrats to the team on receiving this honor.
Sano Genetics has added $11.4 million in new funding led by Plural to aid in their mission of accelerating precision medicine research. Co-founded by Charlotte Guzzo, Patrick Short, and William Jones, Sano leverages AI to manage all aspects of precision clinical trials, from design to patient recruitment to genetic testing. Sano is experiencing huge demand for its product, experiencing 5x growth in ARR this past year and now serving four of the major pharmaceutical companies. .
Edlyft’s AI Tutor, its generative AI platform, has been leveraged by Google to make computer science knowledge more accessible to users. Founded in 2019, Edylft describes itself as “the all-in-one platform that makes engaging with your emerging talent more human and onboarding more efficient” by streamlining pre-start communications, cultivating community, and augmenting professional development. “When founders Erika Hairston and Arnelle Ansong came up with the idea for Edlyft, the duo set out to be a conduit for more Black students who aspire to become engineers - just as they once were.” Congrats to the Edlyft team on your progress towards this mission.
CEO and Co-founder of Sorcero, Dipanwita Das, has been named to The Washington Business Journal’s prestigious 40 under 40 list. This is a huge honor for Dipanwita and a measure of her incredible contributions to the company she founded and the medical data industry as a whole. Sorcero, which uses AI to help sift through oceans of internal and external information and empower medical decision-makers across the pharma value chain, was founded in 2018 by Dipanwita Das and Richard Graves. Congratulations to Dipanwita on such a great start to 2024.
Pano AI has been named one of Inc. Magazine's 2023 #BestInBusiness Award winners, which highlights companies that are “making a positive impact — on their communities, their industry, or the world at large.” This annual list of companies that prioritize purpose as well as profits recognized Pano for its contributions to wildfire-detection, and we’re thrilled for Sonia Kastner and the entire Pano team for this big achievement.
January Ventures Community Spotlight:
We chose the name “January” for our venture fund because it is about beginnings - the challenge and excitement of starting something new!
To kick off 2024, we wanted to spotlight some of the members of our January Ventures operator and founder community who are jumping into new challenges, product lines, roles and businesses. Some of the things they shared:
🙌 "A new board role"
🙌 "Building something from the ground up"
🙌 "A new product for young entrepreneurs of color"
🙌 "A new CEO role"
🙌 "Becoming my own boss"
🙌 "Empowering the underdogs to win!"
See their responses here, here, and here. We hope that by sharing what they are just getting started on, it will inspire others!
Beyond the Cap Table: January Ventures’ Podcast:
ICYMI, catch up on the last few episodes of Beyond the Cap Table below:
Jennifer Neundorfer and Lizzie Carr from January Ventures on signals of a stabilizing fundraising market, how founders can align incentives with their investors, and what's ahead for VC in 2024 (Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify)
Ed Zimmerman from First Close Partners on building a fund of funds, investing in over 150 venture managers, and championing diversity in venture capital (Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify)
Brittney Gavini from Pivotal Ventures on how Pivotal is reimagining the world for women in the US, how it maximizes both returns and impact, and how it underwrites emerging managers (Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify)
Allison Baum Gates from SemperVirens on how to break into venture, her belief in an ecosystem model of investing, and how to make your network work for you (Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify)
Portfolio in the news:
Roxanne Petraues (of Ethena) spoke with three compliance leaders about the top 3 things you should do before taking your company public.
Pano AI was spotlighted in TechCrunch’s This Week in AI.
Quarter20 recently published a whitepaper about why hardware documentation is failing us and tips for improving your processes. You can read CEO Mai Bui’s thoughts and the paper here.
Food for Thought:
Carta’s State of Private Markets for Q4 2023 revealed seed activity slumped while late stage valuations took a leap
Only 8% of European VCs have former operators at the helm, compared to as much as half in the US
A startup pitch is not a presentation and why founders must understand the differences.
Will the UK be the next scale-up powerhouse? The Tech Secretary hopes so!
Where we were and where we will be:
Maren joined the London Business School Entrepreneurship Lab (#TEL) as a venture partner this month. She shared how energizing it was to spend time with the cohort. You can read her thoughts here.
Jennifer spoke at "Women and Wealth Building: How Women Lead, Invest, and Thrive in 2024" for the Stanford Alumni Association’s Women's Impact Network (WIN) lunch. Check out the full video here.
Jennifer spoke at the Women's Venture Capital Summit (#WVCS24) sharing thoughts on how emerging managers break out and raising funds in the current environment.
Maren will be speaking at Tech.eu Summit London 2024, taking place May 16-17. Please make sure to say, “Hi,” if you’ll be there.