Union Square Ventures is a private equity and venture capital firm focused on early-stage, growth capital, late-stage, and startup financing. The USV portfolio companies create services that have the potential to fundamentally transform important markets.  It exclusively invests in the internet world, focusing on the applications layer of the web, internet services, and web services that create large networks as well as the mobile sector. Some of its invested companies are based in New York, San Francisco, London, Berlin, and places in between. It typically makes a starting investment in portfolio companies of $1 million. In certain Series Around cases, the firm may make a starting investment between $2.5 million to $3 million. It typically invests up to $20 million in any single company. Union Square Ventures was founded in 2003 and is based in New York, United States.

Union Square Ventures

Qualcomm Ventures is the investment arm of Qualcomm Incorporated. Founded in 2000, Qualcomm Ventures is a corporate venture capital fund with over 150 active portfolio companies and more than 20 exits over a billion dollars, including 99 Taxis, Cruise Automation, Fitbit, Invensense, NQ Mobile, Waze, and more. As a global investor, Qualcomm Ventures helps connect entrepreneurs to the resources, relationships, and deep industry expertise they need to succeed in the mobile technology ecosystem.

Qualcomm Ventures

Lux Capital manages over $5 billion in assets focused on founding, seed, early-stage, and growth investments at the intersection of technology and the sciences. Lux takes an active role in helping entrepreneurs build successful businesses in high-growth sectors. Its investment team has built over 20 companies from scratch. Lux's investment strategy ensures portfolio companies are better connected, have a deeper insight, and command industry leadership faster than their competitors.

Lux Capital

Google Ventures invests in sectors including life sciences, consumer, enterprise, crypto, climate, and frontier technology. With Alphabet as its sole limited partner, Google Ventures focuses on long-term investments. Its operating partners assist startups in design, equity, diversity & inclusion, talent, and engineering and help them connect with Google for technology and expertise. Founded in 2009 as Google Ventures, Google Ventures manages over $8 billion in assets with 400 active portfolio companies in North America and Europe. Some notable investments include Uber, Nest, Slack, GitLab, and One Medical. Google Ventures is based in the San Francisco Bay Area with offices in Cambridge, New York, and London.

Google Ventures

Osage University Partners is a venture capital firm focused on investing in startups that are commercializing university technologies. Osage partners with research universities to invest in their innovative startups shareing its investment profit with partner institutions. The firm invests in software, hardware, and life science companies at all stages of company development. To date, it has partnered with over 80 universities, including 36 of the top 50 U.S. institutions by research expenditures, and has invested in over 50 of their spinouts.

OUP (Osage University Partners)

NYU's seed-stage venture capital fund invests exclusively in startups founded by, and/or commercializing technologies and intellectual property developed by current NYU students, faculty, and researchers. The Fund will provide needed capital, contacts with the entrepreneurial and venture communities, and just as important, practical management and marketing expertise to transform NYU ideas and inventions into successful, growing companies. The Fund makes approximately three to four investments per year in partnership with other angel investors and seed/venture capital funds. The Fund will recycle investment returns from the successful sale of portfolio companies back into the University to finance further research and future ventures.

NYU Innovation Venture Fund

LDV Capital is an early stage venture fund that invests in people building visual technology businesses. LDV collaborates with deep technical teams that leverage computer vision, machine learning, and AI to analyze visual data. LDV Capital has been investing in pre-seed and seed stage teams across North America and Europe since 2012 from New York City. With LDV's inner circle of computer vision experts, serial entrepreneurs, technical advisors, growth hackers, marketers, and more, LDV leverages their network to help founders navigate the challenges of building a visual tech business.

LDV Capital

Born out of a love for building startups and a passion for backing entrepreneurs with heart, Corazon Capital (spanish for “heart”), a leading Chicago-based venture fund, brings a coastal approach to Seed and Series A investing. With a rare blend of investing experience and operating expertise, Corazon provides unusually pragmatic, actionable counsel to the entrepreneurs it supports. Corazon believes that the best entrepreneurs and the smartest VCs will intentionally solicit both financial and operating investors in their syndicates, with Corazon recognized across geographies for its deep operating knowledge and reach inside and outside of Chicago.  Corazon’s co-founders, Sam Yagan and Steve Farsht, have accomplished track records as investors and operators. Sam co-founded SparkNotes, eDonkey, and OKCupid before posting up as CEO of Match Group (NASDAQ: MTCH) through its IPO, and most recently taking the reins as the CEO of Shoprunner. As a General Partner at Norwest Equity Partners, Steve participated in its growth from five to twenty-five investment professionals. He honed his operating chops as CEO of DCM Services, an NEP portfolio company. After moving to Chicago, Steve immersed himself in the startup ecosystem, first as COO of Tap.me and then co-CEO of Techstars Chicago.   Upon launching its second fund, Corazon added Phil Schwarz, the former CMO of Tinder, where he was responsible for growth, brand and retention marketing on a global basis. Previously, Phil was Head of Growth Initiatives at Match Group and co-founder of the Kaplan/Techstars EdTech accelerator.  Together, Corazon’s principals have founded six companies through to four exits, served as CEOs of companies worth over $5 billion (including taking a company public), executed over $1 billion in acquisitions, invested in excess of $300 million in private companies, and held over 30 board seats.

Corazon Capital

Think Big. Move Fast - Venture capital Firm - We create partnerships with tech entrepreneurs at the earliest stages of creation.

WinstonVenture

TriplePoint Ventures is a venture capital firm that finances seed and early stage investments of life sciences and technology sectors.

TriplePoint Ventures

Menlo Ventures provides capital for multi-stage consumer, enterprise, and life sciences technology companies. Since 1976, the firm’s market-driven analysis has led to the identification of opportunities and successful investments in innovative markets. Notable areas of investment include Marketplaces (Uber, Rover.com, Poshmark); Consumer Services (Tumblr, Betterment, Roku, Siri); Dev/Ops (Harness, Edge Delta, Fire hydrant); SaaS (Carta, ScoutRFP, Qualia, Benchling, Everlaw); Fintech (Betterment, Bluevine, Chime); Cybersecurity (Cavium, IronPort, BitSight, Abnormal, StackRox); and Life Sciences Technology (Synthego, Cofactor Genomics, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, 3T Biosciences). Menlo’s portfolio includes more than 70 public companies, and more than 100 mergers and acquisitions, with $5 billion under management. The firm is currently investing in Menlo Ventures XV, a $500 million early-stage fund, as well as its $500 million Inflection Fund, which targets early-growth investments.

Menlo Ventures

The R/GA Accelerator is a three-month, immersive, mentor-driven program for early-stage startups that are not only innovating products, services, and experiences, but also exploring new business models that exploit emerging technology.  We amplify investment capital by leveraging the agency’s in-house teams of world-class designers, brand strategists, and creative technologists as well as the agency’s mentor network of global brand leaders.  The combination of investment capital, creative capital, and our global network gives our start-up partners an ''unfair advantage'' as they go to market and scale.

R/GA Accelerator

New Enterprise Associates is a prominent venture capital firm focusing on investments in technology and healthcare startups. They help entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors, and geographies. With over $19 billion in cumulative committed capital since the firm’s founding in 1977, NEA invests in technology and healthcare companies at all stages in a company’s lifecycle, from the seed stage through the IPO. The firm's long track record of successful investing includes more than 210 portfolio company IPOs and more than 360 acquisitions.

New Enterprise Associates

CPP Investments's mandate is to invest in the best interests of Canada Pension Plan contributors and beneficiaries and to maximize investment returns without undue risk of loss. CPP Investments is a professional investment management organization that invests the assets of the Canada Pension Plan, not currently needed to pay pension, disability, and survivor benefits.

CPP Investments

SineWave Ventures provides early-stage investment capital to technology companies across commercial and public sectors. The firm aims to deliver superior returns to its limited partners regardless of macro conditions or competitive landscape. It focuses on entrepreneurs that develop solutions to challenging problems common to both Fortune 500 corporations and government enterprises. SineWave Ventures was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Washington, District of Columbia.

SineWave Ventures

NextEquity Partners makes mid-late stage private investments in consumer and enterprise technology companies with $10-50M+ revenue. Founded in 2015, NextEquity is led by senior executives from Apple (former Apple Chief Software Officer Avie Tevanian and former Apple CFO Fred Anderson) and private equity execs from Elevation Partners (Adam Hopkins, Rami Reyes) who have been investing together for over 10 years in leading companies such as Facebook, Yelp, MarketShare, Sonos, Airbnb, The RealReal, Masterclass, Ring, Venafi, and SentinelOne. The team brings a unique combination of Apple DNA, Silicon Valley relationships, and private equity discipline to mid-late stage tech investing.

NextEquity Partners

Numeta Capital is a software-focused private equity firm based in Los Angeles, CA.  We focus on partnering with growth-stage B2B software companies by investing $10mm to $100mm in private transactions ranging from buyouts, recaps, minority growth investments, and structured equity transactions.  Our flexible investment mandate, dedicated operating resources, and single focus on B2B software and technology-enabled businesses make us a stronger partner.

Numeta Capital

Clarifai

Clarifai is a leading, full-lifecycle deep learning AI platform for computer vision, natural language processing, and audio recognition. We help organizations transform unstructured images, video, text, and audio data into structured data at a significantly faster and more accurate rate than humans would be able to do on their own. Founded in 2013 by Matt Zeiler, Ph.D. Clarifai has been a market leader in AI since winning the top five places in image classification at the 2013 ImageNet Challenge. Clarifai continues to grow with employees remotely based throughout the United States, Canada, Estonia, Argentina & India.

Clarifai provides an AI orchestration and development platform specializing in computer vision, natural language processing, and audio recognition capabilities. The company's platform enables organizations to build, deploy, and operationalize AI at scale by leveraging technologies like large language models (LLMs), large vision models (LVMs), and retrieval augmented generation (RAG). The platform offers tools for data labeling, model training, evaluation, and inference across cloud, on-premises, or hybrid environments. Its computer vision technology helps detect defects, anomalies, and quality issues in images, video streams, and sensor data. The platform supports real-time performance on various devices, from low-power cellphones to high-performance servers, allowing businesses to scale computer vision operations.&nbsp;

Facial recognition delivers incredible convenience to consumers, as well as serious risks.

Facial Recognition

Clarifai Launches "AI Sprint" Workshops to Help Organizations Quickly Identify AI Use Cases and Deploy Solutions

Getty Images

To integrate Getty Images' GenAI capabilities into Clarifai's AI orchestration platform, enabling enterprise customers to generate legally protected and commercially safe AI-powered visuals.

Exploring the limitless possibilities of AI

Generative AI Applications

Companies that offer solutions to create and edit images and GIFs, including techniques such as inpainting, outpainting, upscaling, and stylizing

Clarifai provides an AI orchestration and development platform specializing in computer vision, natural language processing, and audio recognition capabilities. The company's platform enables organizations to build, deploy, and operationalize AI at scale by leveraging technologies like large language models (LLMs), large vision models (LVMs), and retrieval augmented generation (RAG). The platform offers tools for data labeling, model training, evaluation, and inference across cloud, on-premises, or hybrid environments. Its computer vision technology helps detect defects, anomalies, and quality issues in images, video streams, and sensor data. The platform supports real-time performance on various devices, from low-power cellphones to high-performance servers, allowing businesses to scale computer vision operations.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsClarifai's customer base spans industries including manufacturing, healthcare, finance, and retail. The company has delivered AI solutions to several US government agencies, including the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Department of Defense (DoD). In October 2024, Clarifai joined Hewlett Packard Enterprise's Technology Partner Program as a Silver Partner to deliver AI development solutions on HPE hardware. The company also formed a strategic partnership with Crimson Phoenix in October 2024 to provide AI-enabled data labeling and computer vision capabilities for intelligence and defense communities. In March 2024, Clarifai launched the AI Developer Alliance with over 15 companies including Postman, Coder, DBT Labs, LlamaIndex, DSPy, Deepgram, Weaviate, LangChain, New York University, Cleanlab, Tabnine, Sieve Data, Brev.dev, Cast AI, Ikigai, Last9, and YCurb.

FacePhi offers a range of facial recognition identity authentication solutions for transaction approval and digital onboarding. FacePhi’s Selphi software allows the user to perform ID authentication via a selfie. The selfie is encrypted and sent to the bank’s database to be used for payee authentication. The encryptions ensures the user's privacy, as the full image is not sent to the bank.&nbsp;In 2023, FacePhi recorded an annual revenue of EUR 25.15 million (USD 26.4 million).Key customers and partnershipsIn May 2021, FacePhi partnered with Revelock, a Spanish fraud detection company, to provide comprehensive identity verification and fraud prevention solutions for financial institutions. In February 2022, the company partnered with software company Oracle Cloud Marketplace to act as a distributor for FacePhi's digital onboarding and facial recognition solutions.&nbsp;In November 2021, the company also partnered with airport operator Aena to offer identity verification for passengers and employees at a price of USD 1.7 million for four years. Aiming to expand its presence in the LATAM region, FacePhi established a regional office in Uruguay in March 2022, followed by an agreement with Hites, a Chilean department store, to use remote selfie onboarding technology to allow<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates?industryIds=16"> Hites’</a> customers to apply for credit cards online.&nbsp;In May 2024, the company entered a strategic partnership with Hancom Group, making it the exclusive distributor of FacePhi's products in the Asia-Pacific region.As of November 2024, FacePhi served over 300 clients across more than 25 countries, with a client retention rate exceeding 95%. The company's technology was being used by several Spanish airlines including Air Europa, Binter, Iberia, and Vueling. Samsung Securities became a technology client in 2024, strengthening FacePhi's presence in the Asia-Pacific market.&nbsp;

FacePhi

Headquartered in the Netherlands, Sightcorp is an AI spin-off from the University of Amsterdam that develops patented proprietary AI Software solutions for mobile apps which includes face detection (detect multiple faces in an image), emotion analysis, crowd demographics, and attention analytics. Main target markets of the company include retail, advertising, hospitality, and digital signage.&nbsp;In January 2022, Sightcorp was acquired by&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/7828?industryIds=16">Raydiant</a>, a provider of an in-location experience management platform, to jointly develop solutions for personalized on-screen, in-location experiences targeting retailers, restaurants, etc. Sightcorp expects to open offices in Lithuania and London in 2022 and to grow its European team from 20 to 100. Raydiant is also hiring across the US and internationally to accompany Sightcorp’s new offices.Key customers and partnershipsThe company’s clients include Toyota, Wahlburgers, T-Mobile, Red Bull, and Baskin Robbins.

Sightcorp

Okaya offers a mobile app that aims to understand the users’ wellbeing by using a combination of facial recognition technology, biometrics analysis (such as heart rate, weight etc.) and machine learning. Okaya’s facial recognition algorithm developed in-house, analyses facial features obtained from a 15 second video recording where up to 30 frames are captured in a second. This data is evaluated along with other biometrics to determine the level of fatigue of a person. The product is claimed to help create strong work teams and a strong work environment as it allows to identify areas where improvement is required.Key customers and partnershipsOkaya targets industries such as healthcare, corporate wellness, and human resources. The platform is designed to serve both clinical providers and employers aiming to improve workforce mental health. Okaya also supports businesses with dedicated integration assistance via channels like Discord.

Okaya

Facetec offers a 3D&nbsp;facial authentication software called ZoOm, which is capable of high-performance liveness detection (verifying that the captured facial features belong to a living person). The software can be used on smart mobile devices and webcams. The company also has patented technology to generate a 3D face map using a video selfie recorded even with a 2D camera. While most other 3D face mapping requires dedicated hardware components, FaceTec's technology eliminates this requirement. As a result, app developers do not need to rely on device manufacturers to incorporate additional hardware in order to use ZoOm. In September 2019, Facetec improved its product by embedding an age-estimation tool.&nbsp;Even though selfie-based authentication has become commonplace, many of them use 2D facial mapping which makes them vulnerable to spoofing attacks (attempts to gain access illegally by reproducing a person's face using images, masks, mannequins, etc.) due to the use of 2D mapping of facial features.&nbsp;The company claims that its product is one of the few companies to be certified at level 1 and 2 in the iBeta Presentation Attack Detection (PAD) test, which is governed by an ISO standard. The software can detect digital and physical 'spoof artifacts' such as high-resolution photos and videos, masks and mannequins.Key customers and partnershipsFaceTec has over 100 customers across various verticals with an installed base of over 10 billion smart devices. ZoOm targets a wide range of markets ranging from banking, e-commerce, healthcare, insurance, e-voting, attendance, and government. Majority of FaceTec's customers are currently government and financial institutions.

FaceTec, Inc.

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 FaceFirst offers facial recognition solutions mainly for access control as well as for identity authentication and real-time security. It focuses on retailers, airports, casinos, banks, as well as music and gaming events. The company also offers a mobile app (for iOS and Android) for facial recognition on the go. FaceFirst&rsquo;s facial recognition tool is mainly aimed at the retail segment, which accounts for around 50% of its business. FaceFirst&rsquo;s patented retail security platform can identify any known shoplifters or forbidden employees attempting to enter the store. Its products can be integrated with existing retail systems. 
 
 
 The company also introduced Mask-ID in November 2018, which instantly blurs identified faces without compromising accuracy. Additionally, the retail security platform allows its users to access the company&rsquo;s database of retail criminals, enabling them to include any individuals banned by the company itself. FaceFirst is one of the companies to work with lawmakers to help regulate the industry.
 
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FaceFirst

Companies that are developing facial recognition technology to suggest tags for photos uploaded on the platform, typically social media.

Companies that provide facial recognition technology for contactless and fast-payment gateways.

Companies providing tools to identify VIP customers and repeat customers by using facial recognition.

Companies that provide technology to monitor physical access to offices, retail stores, and residences as well as access to electronic devices, such as mobile phones and laptops, using facial recognition.

Companies providing facial recognition technology to identify people from live and recorded videos.

Companies that provide facial recognition technology to police and government agencies to identify criminals, protestors, unauthorized overstayers in the country, and departing passengers.

Facial recognition is a type of biometrics used to verify individuals

Used in smart city applications for access control

Facial recognition technology is built on ML models for training data

INCUMBENTS_PRESENT

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>
 AI orchestration platform provider, Clarifai, has formed a partnership with visual content marketplace, Getty Images. The partnership will see the integration of Getty Images' GenAI capabilities into Clarifai's platform.
 As a result of this integration, Clarifai's enterprise clients will be able to use Getty Images' API to generate visuals powered by Artificial Intelligence. These visuals will be trained solely on Getty Images' creative library using NVIDIA AI and Edify. The partnership also ensures legal protection and commercial safety of the generated images.
 This integration allows customers to design custom visual content through the platform. Initial trial operations will be available for no charge, with discounts based on volume. This strategic move could potentially enhance AI-powered workflows within Clarifai's platform by incorporating features such as computer vision, classification, and automation.
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Clarifai

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