M12 - Microsoft’s venture fund, invests in early-stage enterprise software companies with a focus on AI, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, developer tools, vertical SaaS, and Web3/Gaming. Since 2016, M12 has invested in over 100 companies, helping startups accelerate growth with unparalleled access to Microsoft.

M12 - Microsoft's Venture Fund

Point72 Ventures is a global venture capital firm that invests primarily in Fintech, AI/ML, and Enterprise technologies. As an independent arm of Point72, the global asset management firm led by Steven Cohen, Point72 Ventures offers well-informed insights into the global economy. Point72 Ventures has offices in New York City, Palo Alto, San Francisco, and Stamford, Connecticut.

Point72 Ventures

At i5invest, our primary focus is to support and manage corporate development and cross-border M&A processes for extraordinary tech companies.  With our deep domain expertise and our network, we connect founders with the technology ecosystem in order to take their companies to the next levels. We believe the road to success requires building the right relationships and focusing on long-term partnerships.  We have executed over 250 transactions and have been able to strike deals recently with Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, Verizon, Canva, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Verisign, Samsung, Cisco, Telefonica, NBC, Naspers, Volkswagen, Amdocs, IAC, Pfizer/Zoetis, Airbus, Toronto Stock Exchange and many other global tier 1 technology giants. With our business accelerator and investment partner - i5growth we also support high potential European tech companies in their growth phase.

i5invest

Isai is a tech entrepreneurs' fund that focuses on early-stage internet startups and small capital tech private equity deals. It seeks to invest in companies operating in the software, information technology, media, and industrial sectors. It brings together more than 300 tech entrepreneurs who have decided to invest their money and their experience in order to allow the emergence of new French Tech champions. Founded in 2010, Isai is headquartered in Paris, France.

Isai

Maxar Technologies primarily engages in providing integrated space infrastructure and Earth intelligence. It delivers disruptive value to government and commercial customers to help them monitor, understand, and navigate the changing planet; deliver global broadband communications; and explore and advance the use of space. The Westminster, Colorado-based company was formerly known as MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates.

Maxar Technologies

OurCrowd is a venture investing platform that enables institutions and individuals to invest and engage in emerging companies. OurCrowd was started in 2013, driven by the idea that the business of building startups grows bigger and better when the global 'crowd' gains access to VC-level investment opportunities.

OurCrowd

Gaingels is a venture investment syndicate in service of the LGBT+ community and its allies, investing in companies with LGBT+ founders and C-suite leaders at all stages of growth, as well as in more established companies resolved on building more inclusive teams, with a global portfolio of 130+ companies and $70M in deployed investment capital to date.  The Gaingels network also actively supports its portfolio in identifying and recruiting diverse talent to their C-suite and board leadership teams and fosters a vibrant global community of industry leaders, investors, operators, and entrepreneurs who share a common goal for positive social change through business and successful investments.

Gaingels

Established in 2015, Safran Corporate Ventures is the Group's corporate venture capital arm. It funds startups that have developed breakthrough or disruptive technologies or business models which will help Safran to address the challenges of the aerospace, defense or security markets.  Safran Corporate Ventures will help agile, innovation-driven companies by funding their growth. These companies will also benefit from:  • Access to an international network of leading technology experts in Safran's business sectors. • The global commercial and industrial reach of Safran companies. • Commercial and development agreements to be implemented between such startups and Safran's own entities.

Safran Corporate Ventures

ROBO Global is a robotics, artificial intelligence and healthcare technology company.

ROBO Global

ISAI Cap Venture is a technology and digital investment vehicle that makes VC, growth & LBO, and growth financing investments.

ISAI Cap Venture

Early-Stage technology focused venture capital fund

OpAmp Capital

Einstein Industries Ventures bridges financial gap of space startups.

Einstein Industries Ventures

blackshark.ai

Blackshark.ai provides a 3D digital twin of Earth by extracting information from satellite imagery and reconstructing detected attributes in photorealistic 3D fully automatically. A scalable artificial intelligence builds the core of the blackshark platform, detecting features globally with incredible precision and speed. A patented approach to 3D reconstruction can store petabytes of data and render it in infinite detail in real-time, allowing for powerful visualization and simulation applications for government, geospatial intelligence, humanitarian relief, paletary management, autonomous driving and flying, insurance, smart cities and more. The blackshark.ai platform, backed by Microsoft's venture fund M12 and Silicon Valley VC Point72 Ventures, serves large clients globally with a team of 100+ people based out of Silicon Valley/US and Graz/Austria, Europe's computer vision hub.

Blackshark.ai has developed a digital twin platform to replicate the planet. The geospatial platform obtains data from global satellites and aerial imagery using ML and AI to create a digital twin for visualization, simulation, and mapping. The company provides various solutions to users including flight simulators (for realistic 3D flight experience), digital airports (to simulate any airport on the globe), and geospatial analytics (called Orca to extract detailed data about buildings, roads, or vegetation).&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Using real-time data to create dynamic virtual representations of the real world

Digital Twin

Blackshark.ai

blackshark.ai on LinkedIn: #sofweek #3d #simulation #digitaltwin #defense #militarytraining…

Blackshark.ai has developed a digital twin platform to replicate the planet. The geospatial platform obtains data from global satellites and aerial imagery using ML and AI to create a digital twin for visualization, simulation, and mapping. The company provides various solutions to users including flight simulators (for realistic 3D flight experience), digital airports (to simulate any airport on the globe), and geospatial analytics (called Orca to extract detailed data about buildings, roads, or vegetation).&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsThe company targets industries such as gaming, cinema, government, training schools, and insurance.In February 2023, the company partnered with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16654">Maxar Technologies</a> to launch SYNTH3D, our Earth’s synthetic digital twin. Further, in August 2020, the company collaborated with Microsoft to build Microsoft’s Flight Simulator using its digital twin platform by replicating 1.5 billion buildings from 2D satellite images.&nbsp;Funding and financialsIn <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/24060">November 2023</a>, the company raised USD 15 million in a Series A extension round, bringing the total Series A funding to USD 35 million. The round was led by Point72 Ventures, Maxar, M12 Microsoft's Venture Fund, and In-Q-Tel. The funds were allocated towards enhancing its 3D mapping and geospatial intelligence capabilities, and to strengthen its sales and marketing efforts.

Norway-based Cognite is a provider of digital twin modeling software for an entire operation through complex industrial data. With machine learning and physics simulators, companies are able to use these for predictive maintenance, production optimization, and better decision-making.&nbsp;Its main solution Cognite Data Fusion offers an open industrial digital twin by integrating IT, operational, and engineering data from sources such as ERPs, MES, and IoT platforms. The data is cleaned and contextualized into a single location and turned into insights for actionable advice, which then is used to build and automate workflows. The company claimed to be the first company to <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17445">achieve DNV-RP-A204 compliance </a>for its core product, Cognite Data Fusion.&nbsp;In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16217">February 2023</a>, the company advanced with new data-modeling capabilities to accelerate (up to 10–25x) deployments of industrial digital solutions and reduce cost and complexity for users. In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/25399">January 2024</a>, the company launched the beta version of a GenAI remote operations control room at the Celanese facility to deliver real-time operational transparency.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsThe company provides its solution mainly to the oil and gas, power and utilities, and manufacturing sectors. Its key customers include Siemens and Rockwell Automation.&nbsp;The company had partnered with Microsoft in January 2024 to integrate Cognite Data Fusion with Microsoft Fabric and deliver an AI-powered industrial data operations solution. In June 2022, Cognite formed a joint venture, CNTXT, with Saudi Aramco to provide its digitization services in the Middle East region for the private and public sectors. Also, in October 2022, the company partnered with industrial automation company Rockwell Automation to develop an industrial data hub for the manufacturing sector by combining Rockwell’s software, FactoryTalk, and the Cognite Data Fusion.Furthermore, in September 2022, the company partnered with Schlumberger to integrate the Cognite Data Fusion to Schlumberger’s Enterprise Data Solution to contextualize data in an interoperable platform.&nbsp;Funding and financialsThe company raised USD 150 million in May 2021 in an equity funding round from TCV, which brought the valuation of the company to USD 1.6 billion. The funds were allocated toward expanding its platform to global industries.&nbsp;Furthermore, in January 2022, petroleum and gas company Saudi Aramco purchased 100% of Aker BP's shares in Cognite to own a majority stake of 7.4% at a value of USD 183 million.

Cognite

Nexar is a developer of smart dash cams that gathers real-time street footage to create a digital twin of the physical world and provide data to users for decision-making. As of June 2024, the company had covered over 1.5 billion miles of imagery and holds 4T images in a neural library.&nbsp;Using AI and computer vision, captured images and videos from cars are localized on a map to detect any changes in roads to provide actionable changed data across the platform CityStream and Nexar network. The platform provides features such as detecting changes on the road (such as road blockages, potholes, and construction), driver behavioral maps, autonomous vehicles systems, and compute and connectivity optimization.&nbsp;In August 2022, the company acquired Portugal-based Veniam to combine its data with Veniam’s communications technology and provide real-time mapping for mobility applications.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsThe company operates a B2B business model providing its services to enterprises and institutions in the logistics, road construction, and insurance industries. Its key customers include the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, which partnered with Nexar in May 2021 to improve road management in Las Vegas. Also, in August 2021, the company partnered with Black Car Fund to provide cameras for Black car operators (rideshare drivers) in New York to protect Black Car Fund members in the case of accident or assault.&nbsp;It also partnered with AWS to deploy images, videos, and AI detections using AWS.&nbsp;Funding and financialsThe company raised USD 53 million in November 2021 in a Series D funding round led by Qumra Capital. The funds were used to scale its digital twin service using dash cam footage for automotive OEMs and cities.

Nexar

Seeq is a provider of data analytics enabling insights, predictions, and collaboration for better production and business outcomes.The company’s product portfolio includes softwares for data analytics including 1) Seeq Workbench for advanced analytics, 2) Seeq Organizer for publishing reports and dashboards, 3) Seeq Data Lab for accessing Python libraries, and 4) Seeq Cortex for IT governance, data connectivity, and calculation features. Furthermore, the company provides deployment via cloud, SaaS solutions, and on premise depending on the customer’s system.Key customers and partnershipsThe company provides its services in more than 40 countries focusing on process manufacturing industries, including oil and gas, pharmaceutical, chemical, energy, mining, and food and beverage. In June 2024, Seeq partnered with Equinor, an international energy company, to leverage Seeq's platform across Equinor's global assets.Seeq’s software is built on long-term vendor partnerships such as SIsoft, Honeywell (since 2017), and Siemens (since 2017). Seeq has also partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure to develop features specific to their offerings, recognizing Seeq's expertise in providing cloud solutions for the manufacturing and industrial sector. Other partners include Schneider Electric and Inductive Automation.

Seeq

Q Bio provides a predictive assessment platform to analyse existential risk in an individual’s health. The company claims its platform, Gemini Digital Twin, is the fastest and safest scanner, which takes 15 minutes for the whole body to be scanned.&nbsp;The company provides the Q Exam, which gathers millions of data points from the individual’s body, such as blood, saliva, and vitals, and sends results via a web-based Q Dashboard to the individual’s physicians. Data is facilitated via the Gemini platform that captures whole body patient vitals in a non-invasive manner.&nbsp;&nbsp;The company operates a B2B2C business model offering services via employers and to individuals. It charges membership plans for one year at USD 3,495 for one exam and USD 6,495 for two exams.&nbsp;Q Bio's is developing the Mark I scanner which uses proprietary tensor field mapping technology to offer full-body scans with 3,000 anatomical measurements in just 10 minutes, creating digital twins and large biological models for health insights. In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/31878">July 2024</a>, Q Bio secured USD 27 million in strategic funding to propel the Mark I scanner toward market launch.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsIn May 2021, the company partnered with Amazon Web Services to provide Q Bio’s services on its cloud platform.

Q Bio

Israel-based Locusview has developed a digital construction management platform to allow companies to manage projects from start to end. The platform is supported by technological capabilities in physical assets, such as plastic and steel pipes, to enable a digital thread (information of an asset such as model or size) and for supply chain and asset traceability.&nbsp;The platform provides features to manage construction projects in and off the field including GPS and sensor-based data collection, fieldwork validations, cloud-based deployment and scaling, real-time progress tracking, online approvals, and built-in reports. Furthermore, companies can lease the complete solution or get a consultation for a customized solution.The company operates a B2B business model, providing its services mainly to the energy, utilities, and telecom industries.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsThe company’s customer base includes more than 30 leading energy utilities and telecom companies. The company has a market presence in India, the US, Australia, Mexico, the UK, and Israel.&nbsp;The company had partnered with Esri to offer a complete end-to-end solution for Esri-based utilities. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Funding and financialsThe company raised USD 64 million in April 2021 in a Series A funding round led by Israel Growth Partners. The funds were used to expand the platform capabilities and for market expansion.

Locusview

Companies that facilitate the creation of digital twins to monitor and maintain assets, including buildings and network infrastructure.

Platforms that facilitate digital twin modeling by either collectively or individually offering any combination of data capture and analytics solutions.

Companies offering digital twins to gain insights for use in commercial planning, logistics and distribution, and other supply chain processes.

Companies that offer digital twins to assess risks and recommend solutions in areas such as disaster management, DNA testing, clinical trials (to simulate effects of treatments), etc.

Used to design and build components contributing to smart cities, roads, airports, public transportation systems, etc.

Digital twins are the primary enabling technology for the digital twin industry

Startups can create digital twins of cities; enables modeling/simulation to improve efficiency/quality of life

Digital twins can be applied in the telecommunications industry for remote monitoring of communication towers

Startups can use digital twins to automate and proactively monitor industrial production lines and facilities

Uses edge computing for cost-effective and real-time data processing by reducing transmission costs

Uses AI/ML for the creation of digital twins and when running simulations

Digital twin startups use IoT for remote data collection from sensors to create digital twins

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Blackshark.ai, a digital twin platform provider, has raised USD 15 million in a Series A extension round, bringing the total Series A funding to USD 35 million. Notable investors include Point72 Ventures, Maxar, M12 Microsoft's Venture Fund, and In-Q-Tel.
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The new funds will primarily be used to enhance the company’s 3D mapping and geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) capabilities. Furthermore, the funds will also be used to strengthen sales and marketing efforts.
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Blackshark.ai

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