Thought waves on seed venture

‍Vinyl AI is building the central hub for the “context layer” in accounting firms, where real value comes from strategic conversations, not just compliance work. It starts with automated meeting transcription, capturing and organising client discussions so they can be turned into clear, actionable insights.

We have just backed Vinyl, an AI-native platform transforming how accounting firms capture, structure, and act on the full context of client meetings. By turning every conversation into structured, actionable insight, Vinyl is redefining how firms deliver advisory services. We led the Seed round through Tidal Seed Fund III, backing a team with deep industry expertise and the ambition to become essential infrastructure for modern, advisory-led practices.

Markets with tailwinds

The accounting profession is under structural pressure. Fewer graduates are entering the field, experienced practitioners are retiring in large numbers, and compliance workloads are rising. Clients are shifting expectations from reactive reporting to proactive advice and strategic guidance.

Core compliance work is being commoditised by cloud adoption, automation, and AI. This is forcing firms to redefine their value proposition around advisory services, scaling expertise while protecting margins.

Cloud-native operations are accelerating, with fully digital firms growing at ~30–40% CAGR globally. AI adoption is surging: in the UK, 91% of accountants are using or planning to use AI, with 70% already on generative AI. In Australia and APAC, adoption rose from 55% to 69% in the past year. Firms that adopt more technology are materially more profitable, creating urgency and willingness to invest in solutions like Vinyl.

Game-changing products

Vinyl’s wedge is a vertically integrated tool for automated meeting capture and transcription, purpose-built for accounting workflows. It captures, transcribes, and structures client conversations so they can flow seamlessly into existing practice systems.

The roadmap unfolds in three phases:

• Now: Deep integrations with Xero Practice Manager, Karbon, and FYI push notes and action items directly into workflows, saving time and reducing rework.
• Next: Automate proposals, SOPs, and pricing, and productise common workflows such as Tax Planning, Client Onboarding, R&D Claims, and Strategic Reviews, embedding best practice and enabling consistent client service.
• Future: Combine unstructured conversation data with structured general ledger data to predict advisory needs, flag revenue gaps, and drive proactive service.

The long-term goal is to become the “relationship ledger” for accounting firms, capturing the context, trust, and opportunities that power growth.

Founders that hustle

Co-founders Trent McLaren, Liss McLaren, and Jordan Vickery bring complementary strengths. Trent is one of the most recognisable figures in accounting tech, with a career spanning leadership roles in high-growth SaaS and an unmatched ability to build trust in a conservative industry. Jordan brings deep technical execution capability, having led development of integrated SaaS platforms with complex data and workflow demands. Liss leads product, with expertise in translating complex workflows into intuitive, high-impact software experiences.

They are backed by influential leaders in accounting tech, including Richard McLean (KeyPay co-founder, now Employment Hero), Michael Wood (Co-founder, Dext), Guy Pearson (Co-founder and CEO, Ignition), and Nathan Harper (Co-founder, FinLert).

Compelling business model

Vinyl is initially targeting high-value early adopters: cloud native firms that invest heavily in technology, influence their peers, and have the workflow maturity to integrate Vinyl deeply. Expansion into the much larger “transitioning firm” segment will significantly grow the addressable market.

Every firm runs client meetings, each generating tasks, decisions, and follow-ups. Vinyl embeds into this flow, driving compounding usage through:

• Daily use across teams and service lines
• Expansion from initial users to firm-wide adoption
• Deep integrations that increase switching costs
• A pricing model aligned with value delivered

This creates strong retention and built-in growth.

Seed phase ready

Our investment thesis rests on three pillars:

• Market timing: The shift from compliance to advisory is accelerating, and AI adoption is becoming business-critical.
• Product vision: A clear pathway from solving an immediate workflow pain point to owning the firm’s core knowledge system.
• Team: Founders with the credibility, network, and execution capability to win in a trust-driven, change-resistant industry.

Vinyl is moving fast, with over 700 users in its beta program and a significant portion already converted to paid contracts. The team has launched simultaneously in Australia, the UK, and the US, a rare feat at this stage, and is rapidly building market presence. In the next 12 months, Vinyl will deepen penetration in the cloud native segment, expand integrations, and continue monetising beyond transcription.

Global appeal

The problem Vinyl solves is universal. Every firm in every market faces meeting follow-ups, lost context, and administrative overhead. Accounting offers a focused, regulated, and globally consistent starting point where trust is paramount. From there, the product can expand into other service-based sectors where conversation is the core workflow.

We are backing Vinyl to turn a forgotten workflow into a source of leverage. If you are building something similar in another category, we would love to hear from you.

Refold AI is an agentic integration platform that transforms enterprise connectivity from a services bottleneck into a seamless agent-driven superpower. It combines autonomous agents, memory-based orchestration (which retains and applies context over time), and secure edge deployment to take teams from integration request to live workflow in hours instead of months.

We’re proud to be leading Refold’s Seed round, backing experienced founders who are building the connective tissue for modern enterprise software. Refold replaces the manual work of systems integrators with embedded AI-native infrastructure. It empowers software vendors to ship enterprise-grade integrations in weeks rather than months, turning connectivity into a product advantage instead of a delivery cost.

Markets with tailwinds

Enterprise software is at an inflection point. AI is being embedded into every layer, but one major problem is holding back progress: integration. Every AI tool, legacy system, and data lake still needs to connect and communicate. Today, 80% of that work is done manually and holding back the real benefits of AI being deployed.

This is a $200 billion global challenge hiding in plain sight.

With the shift to agentic software, multi-cloud environments, and real-time orchestration, and automation, the right data has become essential. Refold is entering the market at the right time, when demand is high, legacy tools are failing, and enterprises are actively seeking a new solution.

Refold’s platform is purpose-built for complex environments, including hybrid and on-premise deployments. It solves the “last-mile” complexity that older iPaaS (Integration-platform-as-a-service) tools and consulting models cannot, making integration a feature rather than a burden.

Products that change the game

Refold doesn’t just automate steps. It makes decisions. At its core, Refold combines reasoning and reinforcement learning, enabling agents that learn and adapt over time.

The platform is built on three powerful layers:

• Workflow code agents: These write, test, and maintain custom integration logic
• MCP Chains: A natural language interface, based on the Model Context Protocol, that lets users describe workflows and launch them instantly
• Embedded integrations toolkit: Prebuilt UI components that let software vendors deliver native integrations to customers

This architecture supports teams from engineers to end users. Refold turns ad-hoc service requests into repeatable software in days. Unlike legacy systems that rely on rigid templates or billable consultants, Refold is built to eliminate complexity, not profit from it.

It enables rapid time-to-value, unlocks self-service opportunities, and codifies reusable workflows at scale. For customers like Incorta, Refold cut integration timelines by 90% and unlocked millions in revenue.

This is not a minor improvement. It is a complete rethinking of how enterprise systems connect.

Founders that hustle

Refold is led by Jugal Anchalia (CEO) and Abhishek Kumar (CTO), who previously built and exited JustDoc. They experienced the integration problem firsthand inside SAP-heavy enterprise environments, where a single schema change could result in days of downtime and six-figure escalation costs.

That experience has shaped a platform designed for speed, resilience, and developer control. The team has moved fast, developed deep product conviction, and already secured early enterprise traction. With 20 team members across San Mateo and Bangalore and growing, Refold is focused on expanding its integration catalogue and delivering zero-friction deployments.

A compelling business model

Refold has two distinct go-to-market motions:

1. Embedded deployments: Software vendors integrate Refold’s SDK, agents, and UI into their own products, delivering native connectivity to their users
2. Direct deployments: Enterprise IT and engineering teams use Refold internally to orchestrate workflows across complex internal systems

This dual model increases distribution and deepens usage. Each new integration, workflow, or module compounds the value. Some vendors are even launching new premium products powered by Refold’s platform.

Refold’s business model scales efficiently. It has low marginal costs and multiple monetisation levers, including usage-based pricing, hosting, services, and expansion tiers. It already delivers strong product currency through faster onboarding, cost savings, and increased revenue. In doing so, it is earning the right to become the integration partner of choice for some of the world’s most ambitious software platforms.

The Seed phase and beyond

This round will accelerate Refold’s growth. The company is scaling its engineering and GTM teams, expanding its library of connectors, and advancing its orchestration, memory, and reasoning capabilities. It is building the infrastructure needed to support and capture context for complex deployments across cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments.

Over the next 18 months, the focus is on repeatability: turning strong early demand into scalable, defensible growth. Refold is not just streamlining enterprise integration. It is building the invisible logic layer that will power the next generation of software.

Global appeal

Integration is a universal problem. It slows innovation across every geography, industry, and infrastructure stack.

Refold’s platform is industry-agnostic, deployment-flexible, and designed for AI-first environments. It already has applications across analytics, fintech, business intelligence, and supply chain. Long-term, Refold’s ambition is to become the Model Context Protocol server that powers AI-native enterprise workflows.

This is not just a big market. It is foundational infrastructure for the future of software.

If you’re a visionary founder solving deep technical problems, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out via our website.

MediScan AI, a West Coast US startup is replacing the slow, manual admin behind personal injury and insurance claims with AI-first tools built for physicians: transforming a niche but essential industry that's long been underserved by modern software.

We’re thrilled to have led MediScan AI’s Seed round, partnering with the team to transform how independent medical evaluators do their work. Today, these experts rely heavily on outsourced admin services to collate records, manage paperwork, and structure reports. Many give up 25-30% of their revenue just to get the job done. These services are expensive, outdated, and inefficient. MediScan AI is building the software that replaces them. The product helps evaluators handle more cases, in less time, with no loss of quality.

Markets with tailwinds

The US personal injury market is under pressure. The number of insurance claims is rising, driven by increasing litigation and new sources of medical data. At the same time, the experts who assess these cases, known as independent medical evaluators or IMEs, are at capacity.

There are around 100,000 IMEs in the US, working within a USD 16 billion market. They are critical to the success of high-stakes legal and insurance claims, yet their workflow remains slow and manual. Documents arrive in disorganised batches, often handwritten, and it can take days to prepare a single report. With insurance losses reaching USD 143 billion last year, and evaluators struggling to keep up, the market is wide open for change.

Generative AI has reached a point where it can handle entire workflows, not just automate isolated tasks. MediScan AI is stepping in at exactly the right time.

Products that change the game

MediScan has built a platform that turns messy medical records into clear, structured reports. It handles everything from scanning and cleaning documents to pulling out key facts and creating medical timelines. Evaluators can search across an entire case using plain language. They might ask questions like “When did symptoms first appear?” or “What treatment was prescribed?” and get instant, accurate answers.

The most powerful feature is how the system learns. Every time a physician edits or refines the output, the software improves. This feedback loop is built directly into the product, meaning the quality increases with every case reviewed. Most competitors rely on manual checking and outsourced review. MediScan AI does not. Their model improves through direct use by the experts themselves.

The result is speed without trade-offs. Evaluators using MediScan AI report a dramatic reduction in admin time and a big lift in case volume. That translates to more income for them and better, faster outcomes for the lawyers and insurers who rely on their insights.

The most powerful feature is how the system learns. Every time a physician edits or refines the output, the software improves. This feedback loop is built directly into the product, meaning the quality increases with every case reviewed. Most competitors rely on manual checking and outsourced review. MediScan AI does not. Their model improves through direct use by the experts themselves.

The result is speed without trade-offs. Evaluators using MediScan AI report a dramatic reduction in admin time and a big lift in case volume. That translates to more income for them and better, faster outcomes for the lawyers and insurers who rely on their insights.

Founders that hustle

MediScan AI is led by co-founders Kavian Mojabe and Sean Podvent, based on the US West Coast. Kavian, CEO and CTO, is a software engineer with personal context. His father worked as a medical evaluator, giving him firsthand insight into the problems these professionals face. He has built systems at Amazon and in startups through to acquisition, bringing both technical skill and sharp product thinking.

Sean, COO, is a multi-time healthtech founder with a successful exit. He knows the sales cycle, understands healthcare customers, and has built and scaled SaaS businesses from scratch. His most recent company, Hygiene IQ, was acquired in 2023.

Together, they have kept the business lean and focused. They have won early customers through founder-led sales, used customer feedback to shape the product, and stayed disciplined on spend.

A compelling business model

MediScan’s first customers are individual evaluators and small groups. These professionals make independent buying decisions and are motivated to increase their efficiency. This makes them ideal early adopters.

What makes the model even stronger is how naturally it expands. MediScan AI is not just a tool for one step of the process. They are building an end-to-end system that can support the full lifecycle of medical evaluations.

• Act I: Give individual evaluators better tools to process records and write reports.
• Act II: Support physician management groups with scheduling, billing, and admin.
• Act III: Connect evaluators directly with law firms and insurers through a centralised platform.

By owning the core workflow, MediScan AI captures valuable medical insights that competitors cannot easily access. That data, structured and validated by physicians, is what makes the product stronger over time.

Global appeal

While MediScan AI is focused on the US today, the problem is global. Healthcare and insurance systems everywhere struggle with medical record reviews, especially in complex claims. The burden is high and the workflows are broken.

By proving their product in one of the most regulated and high-stakes markets in the world, MediScan AI is setting a strong foundation for international expansion. They are building with an AI-first approach and physician input at every stage, which positions them well to grow across jurisdictions.

The Seed phase and beyond

MediScan AI is early but executing with clarity. The funds from this round will go toward expanding the technical team, building out customer success, and adding features that improve collaboration and compliance.

This is a workflow that has long been overlooked. It has been buried in paperwork and powered by expensive overhead. MediScan AI is taking a software-first approach to reshaping it. They are not chasing trends. They are solving a deep, specific problem that sits at the heart of billion-dollar insurance and legal systems.

The opportunity in vertical AI is not simply about replacing manual work. It is about giving professionals more control, more leverage, and better tools to do what they do best. In MediScan AI’s case, that means helping physicians who move markets work faster, smarter, and on their own terms.

We are proud to partner with Kavian and Sean as they build the future of this category.

If you’re a visionary founder ready to make waves, please reach out via our website.

Today, we are thrilled to congratulate TheLoops co-founders Somya Kapoor and Ravi Bulusu, and their entire team on a remarkable milestone: their acquisition by IFS, a global leader in enterprise software. This landmark achievement is not just a testament to the team's incredible vision and execution, but also a powerful validation of a shared belief in the transformative power of AI to revolutionise customer experience operations.

For us at Tidal Ventures, this is a moment of immense pride. We are honoured to have been a partner to TheLoops since their 2020 Seed round, and this outcome is a brilliant success for the founders, the team, and our investors.

Investment principle: Backing founders with domain expertise

When we first met Somya and Ravi, we saw an accomplished, product-led duo with deep domain expertise. Somya's experience leading product management at ServiceNow, combined with Ravi's background in AI at Splunk and as a multi-time founder, immediately stood out. They had identified a critical and growing pain point: customer support operations were overwhelmed, and existing tools weren't fit for purpose.

As we wrote in our original investment notes, our conviction was rooted in bringing the principles of observability to the front office. For too long, customer success and support had been a black box. We saw a powerful opportunity: what if you could make these operations observable, turning a traditional cost centre into a company's primary growth driver? TheLoops was the answer. Their platform was designed to bring the context, collaboration, and intelligence needed for true observability, empowering teams that had been left behind by modern data tools. We knew this approach would deliver a true step change in the customer experience, and that founders Somya and Ravi were the killer combination with the deep domain expertise to make it happen.

A shared vision realised

TheLoops has executed on this mission with passion and precision, evolving into a leader in AI Agents for the next era of Customer Success. Their platform doesn't just assist agents—it amplifies their expertise. By delivering intelligent routing , proactive insights, and knowledge that evolves with every interaction. Imagine knowing what happened in a customer product interaction when a ticket is opened without them having to explain it! TheLoops has empowered businesses to resolve complex cases faster and more consistently and in turn scale customer operations.

This journey culminates in today’s acquisition by IFS. The strategic fit is undeniable. As a customer of TheLoops, IFS experienced the power of their AI-driven platform firsthand. IFS shares TheLoops' vision for the future of Autonomous AI Agents and provides the global scale and resources to accelerate this mission.

Validating the AI-driven strategy

This successful exit demonstrates the power of Tidal’s investment strategy. Software and AI startups can create immense value and generate strong, early returns with differentiated, AI-driven products that attract significant buyer interest. TheLoops built a platform with compelling intellectual property that delivers tangible ROI, proving that a company with a distinct technology advantage can achieve a great outcome.

This is a formula we believe in, and it is just the beginning. We are proud to see our Seed II portfolio company's successes and are actively replicating this strategy in our Seed III fund, backing companies with cutting-edge AI, real technology advantages, and rapid global potential.

We want to extend our deepest gratitude to Somya, Ravi, and the whole team at TheLoops. Thank you for your relentless hard work and for including us on this incredible journey. We are delighted to have partnered with you and will be cheering you on in your next chapter with IFS.

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Tendl, the startup transforming how businesses respond to government tenders, has secured pre-seed funding led by Tidal Ventures. The investment marks a significant milestone in modernising what has traditionally been an unsexy, time-consuming sector ripe for innovation.

We are excited to lead Tendl's recent funding round, partnering with the team to revolutionise the tendering process through AI-powered technology. Based in Queensland, Tendl is making tendering more accessible and efficient for companies selling to governments and large enterprises, helping them increase revenue through better opportunity discovery and response management.

Markets with tailwinds

The tendering market represents a massive opportunity, with critical market dynamics creating perfect conditions for technological disruption:

• Global government procurement market worth $10 trillion in annual spending
• Government procurement reached $99B in Australia last year
• Up to 13% of OECD GDP flows through tender processes
• Suppliers spend up to 30% of revenue on tendering processes with no guarantee of success
• Traditional high barriers to entry requiring specialised teams and significant time investment
• Growing sovereign debt pushing increased reliance on competitive bidding
• Post-DOGE environment driving renewed focus on cost-effective procurement

The timing for Tendl's solution is particularly compelling as generative AI reaches maturity. Recent developments have shown what can be achieved with modest budgets and smaller, more efficient teams. While previous tools focused mainly on collaboration and information gathering, AI enables a fundamental reimagining of the entire workflow, coinciding with government initiatives seeking greater efficiency in procurement processes.

Products that change the game

Tendl's AI-powered platform stands out through several innovative features that fundamentally transform how companies approach tenders:

• Intelligent opportunity discovery through integrations with over 600 tender portals
• Automated analysis and matching of opportunities to company capabilities
• Smart pre-filling systems that pull relevant information from existing documents
• Deep CRM integrations for tracking progress and improving future bids
• Complete workflow automation powered by AI

The platform delivers concrete benefits across three key areas:

1. Discovery: Makes tender identification user-friendly and 50% faster
2. Analysis: AI agents instantly evaluate fit and requirements
3. Response: Transforms days-long processes into sub-hour workflows, saving tens of thousands annually

Founders that hustle

Founder Laurie Nicol brings a unique combination of engineering, economics, and entrepreneurial experience to Tendl. As a second-time founder who previously built and sold a company working with government data, Laurie deeply understands both the technical and commercial aspects of the problem space.

What impressed us most was Laurie's customer-centric approach and ability to execute with precision. The combination of technical acumen and commercial awareness positions him perfectly to tackle the complex challenges in the tendering space. His vision for leveraging AI technology to deliver powerful solutions without massive infrastructure investments demonstrates the kind of innovative thinking needed in this sector.

A compelling business model

Tendl employs a hybrid pricing model combining platform fees with usage-based pricing, tied to tender volume. This allows them to:

• Scale revenue naturally with customer usage
• Capture value proportional to delivered benefits
• Build strong customer stickiness through integration
• Create potential for success-based pricing as the platform matures
• Reduce at-risk costs for suppliers across the entire market

The platform's positioning as the primary source of tendering data opens opportunities to capture value from the trillion-dollar tendering market through success-based pricing models. By reducing the cost across the whole market and minimising at-risk costs for suppliers, Tendl is creating value at both individual and systemic levels.

Global appeal

Tendl's solution addresses a universal challenge in government and enterprise procurement. While starting with a strong foundation in Australia, the platform's capabilities are readily applicable to similar procurement environments globally. The administrative burden in tendering is a worldwide challenge, presenting significant opportunities for international expansion.

Their AI-first approach to automation and tendering positions them well for scaling across different regulatory frameworks and jurisdictions. By building a solid foundation in Australia's procurement environment, they're developing capabilities that will translate effectively to other markets.

The Seed phase and beyond

Tendl has shown early validation and clear product-market fit signals. The allocated funds will primarily fuel the development of an exceptional team, enabling them to bring their visionary product to life. With a focus on building out robust technical capabilities and conducting strategic market research in the US, Tendl is well-positioned to capitalise on the growing demand for intelligent tendering solutions.

From day one, Laurie's unwavering focus has been on establishing Tendl as the backbone of tender operations not just in Australia but on a global scale, and we wholeheartedly support this mission. We look forward to continuing to support the Tendl team as they set out to transform how companies approach and win tenders.

If you’re a visionary founder ready to make waves, please reach out via our website.

Minikai is a game-changing AI platform revolutionising the disability and aged care sectors by transforming tedious paperwork into automated magic. By taking care of the heavy administrative lifting, Minikai empowers care providers to do what they do best - provide exceptional care to those who need it most.

We're thrilled to have led Minikai's Seed round, partnering with the team to revolutionise how care providers operate in highly regulated sectors through AI-powered automation. As your AI ally in disability and aged care, their platform transforms the workflow of frontline care providers by automating administrative work and compliance reporting, enabling them to focus more time on patient care while building a powerful trust platform between regulators and providers.

Markets with tailwinds

The aged care and disability sectors present a massive opportunity, with $50bn in government funding in Australia alone. These sectors face mounting challenges that create perfect conditions for technological disruption:

• Critical administrative burden with compliance teams spending over 50% of their time on audits and paperwork
• Providers face fines exceeding $1.5 million for compliance breaches
• Tens of thousands of incidents go unreported every year due to complex reporting requirements
• Training staff costs $230,000 per 100 clients annually
• Growing regulatory pressures with new mandates requiring minimum care minutes per resident
• Widespread inefficiencies costing care providers and the government billions in tax dollars annually

The timing for Minikai's solution is particularly compelling as generative AI reaches maturity. Unlike traditional software which often requires structured data input, GenAI can process unstructured information like clinical notes and conversations, enabling true hands-off automation. This technological shift coincides with government initiatives funding AI pilots to improve efficiency and care standards.

Products that change the game

Minikai's AI-powered platform stands out through several innovative features that fundamentally transform how care providers work:

• Collective memory: A sophisticated implementation of long-term memory for LLMs that maintains continuity of care across multiple providers
• Context-aware personalisation: Dynamic UI components that adjust based on user roles and preferences
• Automated documentation: Converts conversations and interactions into structured reports and compliance documentation
• Mini agents: Each patient gets a dedicated AI agent that understands their specific needs and history

The platform delivers concrete benefits across three key areas:

1. Reporting: Makes incident reporting user-friendly for carers and 50% faster for compliance staff
2. Quality & safeguarding: AI agents instantly scan all documents and identify compliance gaps
3. Always-on audit: Instantly compile evidence from a live, self-serve dossier

Early results are compelling, with customers like SDA Services seeing dramatic improvements in efficiency, particularly in processing intricate SDA and SIL applications. The platform is already trusted by care providers supporting over 150,000 vulnerable Australians annually, demonstrating strong market validation.

What truly sets Minikai apart is their vision to become the trust platform between regulators and care providers. By starting with on-the-ground workflow automation, they're building the foundation to become the system of record for all compliance activities.

Founders that hustle

The founding team combines deep technical expertise with personal connection to their mission:

• Keoki Alexander-Chang (CEO): Left a promising career leading Deloitte'sForensic AI lab to launch Minikai, motivated by his mother's struggles navigating health and human services. His experience gives him unique insights into both the technical and human aspects of the problem.
• Kyel Shera-Jones (CTO): Brings a powerful personal connection through his nephew Chase, an NDIS participant. Combined with his experience modernising complex backend infrastructure for the Australian government and leading high-performance teams at Concentrix-Tigerspike, he bridges technical expertise with deep domain understanding.
• Freddie Hedegaard (CGO): Former CEO of Dungbeetle.io, bringing extensive sales expertise to drive Minikai's growth and market penetration.

What impressed us most was the team's combination of technical sophistication and genuine mission-driven approach. They've transformed personal experiences with the care system into a solution that addresses critical industry pain points.

A compelling business model

Minikai has demonstrated strong early traction, having already secured major care providers who collectively support over 150,000 vulnerable Australians annually. Their platform offers clear value proposition by:

• Reducing administrative time by 30-50%
• Accelerating application processing and approval times
• Improving compliance accuracy and documentation quality
• Enabling more time for direct patient care
• Transforming hours of work into seconds through AI automation

Their revenue model scales with the number of patients being managed, providing natural expansion opportunities as customers grow. The platform's ability to handle complex regulatory requirements while improving efficiency creates strong customer stickiness.

Global appeal

Minikai's solution addresses a universal challenge in healthcare and social services. While starting with a strong foundation in Australia's NDIS and aged care sectors, the platform's capabilities are readily applicable to similar regulatory environments globally. The administrative burden in healthcare and social services is a worldwide challenge, presenting significant opportunities for international expansion.

Their AI-first approach to automation and compliance positions them well for scaling across different regulatory frameworks and jurisdictions. By building a solid foundation in Australia's complex regulatory environment, they're developing capabilities that will translate effectively to other markets.

The Seed phase and beyond

The funding round will primarily support:

• Expanding the technical team to enhance the platform's AI capabilities
• Building out sales and customer success functions to support rapid growth
• Accelerating development of their regulatory trust platform features
• Supporting international expansion plans

The founders have a clear vision for growth beyond their initial market, with plans to expand their platform's capabilities and geographical reach. With their deep technical expertise in AI, strong early traction, and clear product differentiation, we believe they're well-positioned to build a category-defining company in the care sector.

If you’re a visionary founder ready to make waves, please reach out via our website.

AIMon is tackling one of the biggest challenges in AI today: making Large Language Models (LLMs) safe, reliable, and enterprise-ready.

We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve co-led AIMonʼs Pre-Seed round alongside Bessemer Venture Partners. AIMon is addressing one of AI’s most pressing challenges: ensuring Large Language Models (LLMs) are safe, reliable, and enterprise-ready. Their platform empowers organisations to deploy AI confidently, mitigating risks like hallucinations, harmful content, and data leakage.

Markets with tailwinds

Generative AI is transforming industries at a breakneck pace, but deploying LLMs isn’t easy—one mistake in accuracy or safety can destroy trust and credibility. AIMon addresses this gap, providing the essential reliability layer enterprises need to adopt and build with AI confidently.

The generative AI market is expected to grow to $143B by 2027, with spending climbing at a staggering 73% annual growth rate. Regulatory frameworks like the EU AI Act are pushing organisations to prioritise transparency and safety, adding urgency to the need for reliable AI solutions. Yet, despite the massive opportunity, no major player owns the LLM reliability space—until now.

AIMon’s platform has the potential to be as indispensable to AI as Datadog has become to DevOps. It’s critical infrastructure for an AI-driven world.

Products that change the game

AIMon’s Hallucination Detection and Monitoring platform is the enterprise solution the AI world has been waiting for. It’s cutting-edge yet simple, designed to make AI deployment safe, scalable, and trustworthy. The platform delivers real-time insights, detecting hallucinations, toxicity, and sensitive data with low latency. It scales seamlessly on standard hardware, eliminating the need for costly infrastructure, and it’s customisable to meet the unique demands of enterprise applications.

By enabling organisations to deploy AI with confidence, AIMon transforms LLMs from experimental tools into dependable engines for innovation. This isn’t just a product; it’s the backbone of AI reliability.

Founders that hustle

AIMon’s co-founders, Puneet Anand and Preetam Joshi, are a powerhouse duo with a track record of delivering transformative technology. Puneet scaled multiple monitoring products at AppDynamics to $150M+ ARR, earning his reputation as a builder of must-have enterprise tools. Preetam, meanwhile, was instrumental at Netflix, where he co-created Metaflow, an open-source ML framework that’s still shaping the AI landscape for companies like Netflix, Intel, Porsche, and Goldman Sachs.

With their combined expertise in building scalable ML systems and solving hard technical problems, Puneet and Preetam are more than capable—they’re primed to lead AIMon to success. They don’t just build; they execute, iterate, and adapt with incredible speed.

A compelling business model

AIMon’s initial go-to-market strategy focuses on B2B sales, targeting enterprises that urgently need reliable AI tools. Over time, the team plans to target users bottoms-up, fostering a community-driven adoption model that scales.

Starting with monitoring, AIMon creates an indispensable wedge in the AI stack. As the platform evolves into a comprehensive evaluation and improvement layer, it becomes a key driver of enterprise AI performance. This dual approach positions AIMon to build a defensible, scalable business in a rapidly growing market.

The Seed phase and beyond

With its funding, AIMon is laser-focused on getting market traction for its product, converting warm leads into enterprise customers and growing its engineering team. Their goal is to prove product-market fit and achieve significant ARR within 18 months, paving the way for further growth.

AIMon isn’t just building a product—they’re creating the foundation for trustworthy AI at scale. As generative AI adoption accelerates, AIMon is perfectly positioned to lead the charge, making safe and reliable AI a reality for enterprises worldwide.

If you’re a visionary founder ready to make waves, please reach out via our website.

Counting my lucky stars

Growing up, I had always envisioned myself being a diplomat and working overseas, so studying Law and International Studies made sense.

However, I chose to start my career in investment banking because I wanted to build a solid foundation in business. I joined Macquarie Capital’s Financial Institutions Group, where I worked on M&A deals across industries like superannuation, life insurance, and funds management. It was a great opportunity—I learned a ton about company valuations and building strategic relationships while working with really smart people.

But I found myself wanting to get closer to the companies we were working with. My time at a startup and venture capital fund had already sparked that desire. I loved the hands-on, scrappy work at the startup, and venture capital showed me the excitement of evaluating founder pitches and making quick decisions. That experience made me realize I wanted something more interactive, and my time at Macquarie confirmed it. So, I decided to make the switch to venture capital, where I could be more involved in helping build businesses from the ground up.

Seeking pearls, not just ripples: why I love the seed phase

I’m drawn to seed investing because it taps into my curiosity. The seed phase is all about exploring the unknown, which keeps things exciting. As AI shifts rapidly from general applications to industry-specific solutions, staying curious and up-to-date feels more essential than ever for investors.

I find a lot of joy in working closely with founders to unpack these unknown areas—particularly the product being built, the market addressed and even their execution. For some, this uncertainty can be challenging, but this gives me energy. Combine that with my go-to matcha latte, and you’ll understand why I’m usually on a high throughout the week.

As to why I find excitement in this process, it boils down to two main factors:

1. My core belief that the magic is in the details. I dive deep into any topic that interests me, and this has been best captured through my work with B2B software-as-a-service (SaaS) startups. While many look at the iceberg of these businesses (ie. product-market-fit or revenue), my curiosity for the details has found me needing to understand businesses at their core. I would typically work closely with founders to learn how an industry operates, what macro trends will impact the business, and how buyers are driven to purchase software—which often includes the entire process of getting a budget and involving internal stakeholder buy-in.
2. The opportunity to exercise my strengths. From deal evaluation to assessing industry trends, my M&A experience has been anchored by being able to quickly develop a good grasp of movements in technology and economic models—and this has been seamlessly transferred to early-stage venture capital. Given how the early success of seed-stage businesses is contingent on being agile to respond quickly to technology shifts, I’ve been able to offer founders my ability to quickly see where value accrues in any market.

When you combine these two factors—going deep into the details while picking up new information quickly—this is where I add the most value for our founders.

Going from getting early customers towards building a scalable business you need a good handle on whether what you're doing today is sustainable.
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The best way to figure that out is by understanding the numbers—going deep on unit economics, building budgets and forecasts, and operating models. All of which I have been able to hone in on during my time in mergers and acquisitions transactions.

Lessons on lessons on lessons

While the excitement of deal evaluation is a big part of early-stage venture capital, the real value goes well beyond that. The post-investment stage is where the deeper learning happens. Working closely with founders to help grow their businesses provides invaluable insights that shape how we approach future investments. It’s in this hands-on involvement where we truly gather the lessons that make us better investors.

I might only be five feet tall, but I have a complete overview of every moving part of the business—including sales ops, product pivots, go-to-market (GTM) pivots, and a million other changes. Being so close to the ins and outs has really allowed me to lean in on the learnings, which is a process I value as I firmly believe that spending time learning is never a waste of time, regardless of the outcome. Some recent lessons I’ve been able to gather from working closely with our founders from Blakthumb and Bonjoro include:

• The importance of narrowing down your ideal customer profile and how doing so will lead to more sustainable unit economics for each customer that is brought on.
• The concept of price elasticity in the context of pricing and packing SaaS products, and how it can vary across different customer segments.

However, these learnings don’t just come from the companies we invest in. While we often don’t invest in the vast majority of the companies we see, I’ve always found it worthwhile to learn about any given industry or new technology being developed, even if it doesn’t result in an investment. This has definitely taught me the power of learning how to learn.

My investment wish list if I had a time machine

I've long answered Wiz. Wiz is one of the fastest-growing software companies of all time… it's hard to believe that they’ve only been in the market since 2020. Within just four years, they’ve been able to reach $350M ARR. This solidifies the demand for comprehensive cloud and SaaS security solutions and expertise is growing, with 83% of organisations planning to increase their cloud security budget in the next 12 months alone.

Despite top-down pressure to improve cloud security, cybersecurity startups will often be met with apprehension from security teams who are reluctant to provide access to their code base or internal data. Yet, the way Wiz was able to quickly demonstrate their product’s core value to increase their customer base is particularly commendable; and I think it has set the benchmark for the wider cybersecurity industry.

My green flags in founders

By now, you might have noticed I have a thing for anything green (pandan and matcha at the top of that list.)

Aside from founders who hustle by rolling up their sleeves, I typically look for two green flags.

Having customer obsession and the ability to sell.

Both are essential in driving the business forward very early on - whether you’re selling to customers, employees, or investors. Regardless of the stakeholder, they all require someone who has complete conviction on the problem they’re solving and can convince others of the same vision.

At the early stage, being an idealist is important in setting visionary goals, principles, and long-term objectives. However, the caveat is that the best founders can balance this with the pragmatism to change course when something isn’t working. Too often, I find founders being too laser-focused on their visions, preventing them from seeing the bigger picture and making the necessary product and customer pivots.

If you’re a founder ready to make waves, I’d love to hear your vision. Let's talk about your game-changing product and how it's shaping your industry. I can't wait to explore the potential together!

If you’re a visionary founder ready to chat about what problem you’re solving, then we should chat!

Leading the charge in powering the asset management industry forward with AI, Asseti uses high-quality imagery and machine learning to predict and prioritise asset needs, minimising downtime and maximising lifespan.

We’re delighted to have led Asseti’s Seed round, working with the team to realise their mission of building an AI-powered asset condition monitoring platform. Asseti is a game-changer in intelligent asset management, covering an expansive market of real assets. Its software platform utilises high-quality imagery and advanced machine learning to predict and prioritise asset needs. It monitors wear and tear, leaks, and potential hazards, thereby minimising downtime and maximising the lifespan of valuable assets. Asseti is quickly becoming the leader in condition management across the lifecycle of these assets.

Markets with tailwinds

You only need to look out your window to know that asset management is an expansive market. Imagine all the offices, stores, warehouses, quarries, properties and buildings around the globe—Asseti can be used with all of them, no matter where they are. Managing these real assets has traditionally been cumbersome and risky. Infrastructure demands regular upkeep to minimise downtime and ensure a safe operational environment. Another market factor driving Asseti forward is the opportunity presented by digitisation.

Historically, asset-heavy industries have lagged in digital transformation due to deep-rooted processes and legacy operations. However, recent drivers like COVID-19 and the push for sustainable practices have accelerated this shift. Predictive maintenance, which leverages data analytics and predictive modelling, has gained popularity for its ability to prevent unplanned downtime and costly repairs. Furthermore, the growing demands for sustainability have underscored the importance of reducing carbon emissions. Asseti meets these needs by enabling remote access to assets, thereby reducing travel and enhancing worker safety.

Products that change the game

Asseti’s platform uses high-quality imagery to create detailed 3D digital models. Machine learning and AI analyse these models to comprehensively list components, quantities, conditions, and issues. This empowers managers to create detailed work plans for their asset portfolios, assessing them in risk and cost.

Traditionally, engineers or staff would climb structures, take inadequate photos with digital cameras, write reports, and circulate them as PDFs. Asseti captures this condition data over time, giving asset managers and senior management a complete overview of their portfolios’ condition across different time periods.

By moving costing and forecasting from Excel to a dynamic, data-driven platform, Asseti provides primary data and insights across the asset lifecycle: acquisition, operation, and disposal.

Their newest innovation, Asseti Foresight, revolutionises capital expenditure (CapEx) planning in asset management. Powered by AI, it forecasts total replacement lifecycles and maintenance costs across entire asset networks, optimising intervention timing based on degradation and financial modelling. This tool streamlines long-term financial planning, offering strategic insights for future expenditures.

The next stage for Asseti is instant asset assessment through satellite imagery, offering more frequent evaluations.

Founders that hustle

Founder Aonghus Stevens, with 15 years of experience in the drone imagery industry, leads a stellar team with members from notable companies like NearMap, Commbank, and Deloitte.

Being a solo founder demands resilience, focus, drive, a clear vision, and problem-solving skills—Aonghus exemplifies all of these qualities and more. By being data-obsessed and focused on providing solutions that offer asset owners and managers insights over the entire asset lifecycle, not just at a single point in time. He believes the future of asset management lies in data-led decision-making, envisioning data use decades into the future.

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A compelling business model

Every building and structure is a potential asset that Asseti can assess and help manage. Asseti’s model not only reduces time and risk but also provides asset owners with a detailed view of their asset’s condition over time. This understanding of condition data over time then allows Asseti to offer detailed insights into CapEx planning and affords them the right to influence both the acquisition and disposal stages in the asset lifecycle. Asseti also owns the primary condition data of the building, which can be transferred to a new owner of the building, almost like a system of record for an asset.

On top of its existing traction, Asseti’s latest functionality to drive CapEx planning and spending involves more teams and stakeholders across its customer base, including finance and executives. This enables the platform to be an indispensable part of their customers’ businesses. This transition will lift these teams out of spreadsheets and into Asseti, similar to what Orkestra has achieved in the solar and battery space.

The Seed phase and beyond

Asseti is in its Seed Phase, having demonstrated strong product-market fit. It is already trusted by industry leaders such as Mirvac, CBRE, Caltex, Colliers, and Toyota. Asseti has achieved remarkable growth of 200%+ year over year and is poised for continued growth in its expansive addressable market.

The Asseti team is looking to enhance its product and engineering capabilities, specifically focusing on scaling its software offering. Driven by their initial success in the market, they are also keen on expanding in the US and are excited to introduce new AI-driven features for instant asset condition insights—a true game-changer in the industry!

If you’re a visionary founder ready to make waves, please reach out via our website.