Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that invests in a large number of startups twice a year. It created a new model for funding startups. Twice a year, the company invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups. The startup accelerator works intensively with the companies for three months, to get them into the best possible shape and refine their pitch to investors. Each cycle culminates in Demo Day when the startups present their companies to a carefully selected, invite-only audience.

Y Combinator

Array Ventures is focused on solving impactful problems using revolutionary technology. Often that means category-leading startups that take advantage of data, analytics, workflows, and new platforms to change the way an industry works.   They invest in smart people with a bold mission who take big risks in large or new markets. They want entrepreneurs to tell us what the world is going to look like in 2, 5, 10 years, and why they are going to be to be a winner in that world.

Array Ventures

Blumberg Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm that partners with visionary entrepreneurs to build successful technology companies that empower individuals, businesses and society through the innovative use of AI, big data and other transformative technologies. We are passionate about nurturing B2B technology companies from Seed stage through their growth journey, as active board members and hands-on advisors. We were among the first investors in industry leaders including Addepar, Braze, Credorax, DoubleVerify, Fundbox, HootSuite, Katapult, Nutanix, Trulioo and Yotpo. Find us in San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Miami and New York or at blumbergcapital.com.

Blumberg Capital

Momenta is the leading Industrial Impact venture capital + growth firm. We accelerate entrepreneurs and leaders devoted to the digitization of energy, manufacturing, smart spaces, and supply chains. Since 2012, our team of deep industry operators have made over 100 investments in entrepreneurs and helped scale over 150 industry leaders via our award-winning executive search and strategic advisory practices.

Momenta

Bain Capital Ventures invests in seed to growth-stage startups that are using tech to disrupt existing markets or create entirely new ones.  The firm invests from seed to growth in enterprise software, infrastructure software, and industries being transformed by data.  Bain Capital Ventures has helped launch and commercialize 200-plus companies since 2000, including investments in DocuSign, Jet.com, Kiva Systems, LinkedIn, Rapid7, SurveyMonkey, Taleo, and TellApart. Bain Capital Ventures has more than $5.2 billion of assets under management with offices in San Francisco, New York, and Boston.

Bain Capital Ventures

GV supports innovative founders moving the world forward. We invest across the life sciences, consumer, enterprise, crypto, climate, and frontier technology sectors. With Alphabet as a sole limited partner, GV operates on long time horizons and deals in decades, not rounds. Our operating partners support startups at the earliest stages of company-building across design, equity, diversity & inclusion, talent, and engineering. We also help startups interface with Google, providing unique access to the world's best technology and talent. Launched as Google Ventures in 2009, GV has over $8 billion in assets under management and 400 active portfolio companies across North America and Europe. Notable investment outcomes include Uber, Nest, Slack, GitLab, Duo Security, Flatiron Health, Verve Therapeutics, and One Medical. GV is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, with offices in Cambridge, New York, and London.

Google Ventures

Bain Capital is a multi-asset alternative investment firm with assets under management and operates business units that create value through private equity, public equity, credit, and venture capital across multiple sectors and industries.

Bain Capital

Alumni Ventures Group provides high-quality, diversified venture portfolios to individual investors who previously haven't had access to VC. It helps accredited alums from top entrepreneurial schools invest together in the ventures of fellow alums. The firm backs companies with an alumni connection and an institutional lead investor with expertise in the space. AVG also offers focused funds that allow any accredited investor access to a venture portfolio, diversified by type, sector, stage, and geography. Beth Obermiller, Michael Madden, and Mike Collins co-founded the firm in Manchester, New Hampshire in 2013.

Alumni Ventures

Green D Ventures is a community of accredited Dartmouth alums who pool money into a VC fund to invest in Dartmouth-connected companies. Simply put, they believe they can invest better together than they can alone. They create a diverse portfolio for their investors, co-investing with leading VC funds across industry, stage, and geography. Their goal is to raise a new fund each year that benefits entrepreneurs, the school's ecosystem, and their investors.

Green D Ventures

Castor Ventures is an investment firm. Castor Ventures invests in a broad range of venture-backed companies to build diversified venture portfolios invested alongside established venture firms.

Castor Ventures

Overview.ai

Overview’s inspection systems are built with Deep Learning technology which allows us to find mistakes more consistently and in a wider variety of situations.

Overview uses smart cameras and AI to monitor manufacturing equipment and robots and identify defects in real time before significant damage or downtime is incurred. The technology has a repository of machine data so that there is a traceable visual record of all units. With AI, the cause of production issues and quality concerns can be identified either on-site or remotely. The company claims over time, the deep learning computer vision algorithms allow for any sudden substantial increases in production and improved yields. Funding and financials

Using data and automation to achieve 24/7 production.

Smart Factory

Overview

Overview uses smart cameras and AI to monitor manufacturing equipment and robots and identify defects in real time before significant damage or downtime is incurred. The technology has a repository of machine data so that there is a traceable visual record of all units. With AI, the cause of production issues and quality concerns can be identified either on-site or remotely. The company claims over time, the deep learning computer vision algorithms allow for any sudden substantial increases in production and improved yields. Funding and financialsIn February 2022, the company raised USD 10 million in series A funding to be used to expand operations and business reach.

<div>
 
 Righthand Robotics provides autonomous robotic picking solutions called RightPick. It utilizes a smart gripper, machine learning, and computer vision to imitate human hand-eye coordination. It develops software and hardware for predictable order fulfillment at scale with flexibility. The company&rsquo;s solutions can be utilized in industries such as apparel, grocery, pharmaceuticals, and electronics. It is based in Massachusetts and has an office in Tokyo, Japan. The company is focused on expanding its European operations, having opened an office in Frankfurt, Germany, in March 2020.
 
 
 In 2019, the company launched the second generation of its piece-picking robotic solution, &ldquo;RightPick2,&rdquo; which includes enhancements to hardware and software. The upgrades included a fifth-generation industrial gripper with the capacity to lift up to 4.4 lbs, new depth-sensing cameras from Intel, and an improved arm from Universal Robots. In 2021, the company launched &ldquo;RightPick 3,&rdquo; with improved picking speeds, capacity to handle a broader item range, and with capabilities for dense packing and damage-free item handling. 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/25875">
 In January 2024,
 </a>
 it launched &ldquo;RightPick 4&rdquo; with enhanced AI, sensor suite, and new hardware that allow the system to extend its item-picking range, handle items more efficiently, and enhance system autonomy.
 
 
 In February 2022, the company raised USD 66 million in a Series C round bringing its total funding to USD 100.3 million. The funds were expected to be used to accelerate product and business development, scale global presence by expanding the partner network, expand offices, and acquiring new talent to support overall growth plans. Subsequently, in March 2022, the company announced the launch of its 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9203?industryIds=6">
 partner integrator program,
 </a>
 to complement its robotic piece-picking solutions with warehouse technologies and solution providers to cater to the broad ecommerce order fulfillment market. In May 2022, AutoStore integrator in South Korea Asetec also joined the program.
 
</div>

RightHand Robotics

<div>
 
 SparkCognition is an AI analytics startup offering four deep learning product solutions: Darwin (automated model-building software), DeepArmor (AI-powered cybersecurity), DeepNLP (NLP solution), and SparkPredict (analytics solution utilizing sensor data). These products deliver actionable insights, predict machine issues via historical maintenance data, and provide security from cyber threats. These products can be deployed across multiple industries, such as manufacturing, defense, utilities, oil and gas, and aviation. 
 
 
 SparkCognition&rsquo;s clientele comprises large companies such as Boeing, Hitachi, and British Petroleum. It has also built partnerships with Google for cloud platform services, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise to offer AI predictive maintenance on HPE Edgeline Converged Edge Systems, and OSIsoft to integrate SparkCognition&rsquo;s machine learning technology with OSIsoft&rsquo;s PI system to improve data and process data analytics.
 
 
 The company&rsquo;s most recent funding round was Series D funding worth USD 123 million in January 2022 from March Capital, Doha Venture Capital, B. Riley Venture Capital, AEI Horizon X, Temasek, and several others. The funds were intended to be used to invest in R&amp;D, accelerate sales and marketing, facilitate organic and inorganic growth, and also for the working capital requirements of the company. In March 2022, the company acquired Indian visual AI startup 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9370?industryIds=6">
 Integration Wizards
 </a>
 to expand its intellectual property (IP) portfolio to improve vision capabilities. The company has reported a 2x increase in revenue YoY in 2021.
 
</div>

SparkCognition

Kinta AI provides an automated production planning platform for manufacturing that uses advanced AI algorithms and simulation techniques. Using existing operational data, a SaaS solution is deployed that can be integrated with existing management execution systems (MES), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and Industry 4.0 tools in the factory. The software looks to have cross-functional communication across the factory to eliminate any bottlenecks that delay resolving breakdowns. Kinta AI has partnered with Flex (an electronics manufacturer) and BASF (a chemical company).Kinta AI’s most recent financing was a Series A funding round worth USD 5.5 million in April 2021 led by Lachy Groom’s LGF and Shine Capital. The funds will be utilized to scale operations in existing general industrial client factories and implement the Kinta AI platform in new client factories.

Kinta AI

<div>
 
 Sight Machine provides a digital manufacturing platform enabled by AI. It creates a digital twin of both assets and processes to help manufacturers improve processes, quality, and productivity. It can also gather data from machines of various manufacturers supplying actionable insights for predictive maintenance, quality improvement, capacity utilization, among other benefits. In October 2022, the company released 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13696?industryIds=6">
 Sight Machine Blueprint
 </a>
 to offer manufacturers with advanced data analytics solutions.
 
 
 Sight Machine has established partnerships with large global companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) for their cloud platforms and Fujitsu (system integrator) to help with wide deployments. Sight Machine, which caters to at least 15 verticals, such as food and beverage, electronics, and automotive, is on the move to expand into more verticals. It has global clients of Fortune 500-caliber, including Nissan, Heineken, Westrock Co., and Asian Paints. Sight Machine&rsquo;s most recent funding round was Series C funding worth USD 29.4 million in April 2019, led by LS Group. The funds were to be used to expedite the company&rsquo;s growth.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In December 2023, 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/25200">
 Sight Machine received a low double-digit million euro investmen
 </a>
 t from TeamViewer to improve industrial digitalization and enhance manufacturing efficiency.
 
 
 
</div>

Sight Machine

Companies that provide robotic fleet management software, robotic automation software, and inspection software.

Companies that provide an industrial IoT platform across factories as the primary offering.

Companies that provide cobots, sorting/ picking robotics, modular production robotics, and microfactories.

Companies that focus on data analytics for operations streamlining and process optimization, and may offer predictive maintenance.

Companies that provide autonomous mobile robots (AMR) or self-driving vehicles (SDV) used in manufacturing/ factory operations.

Companies that monitor the manufacturing equipment and assembly lines.

Companies that provide predictive maintenance as a primary offering. 

Creates digital twins of assets and processes to help manufacturers improve processes, quality, and productivity

Connected devices, sensors, IoT, and analytics are used to optimize factory operations

Uses advanced robotics, AMRs, and related software to improve the efficiency of factory operations

Uses connected devices and sensors to gather data—IIoT, predictive analysis, and equipment inspection

Uses AI/ML to analyze data for predictive maintenance and AI-based vision systems for line inspections

5G standard allows for faster reaction times and supports high connection densities

Uses edge computing for data processing at the edge

Some companies in the predictive maintenance space uses generative AI to generate possible alternative scenarios

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