The Bearhug Experience

Kraig Ward
  • 5.0 (4)
  • ENTREPRENEURSHIP
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Welcome to The Bearhug Experience, where we cozy up to the fire in our digital den and immerse ourselves in the inspiration born from exploring the hidden narratives and inevitable plot twists that shape every compelling startup journey. Join us as we showcase inspirational guests, from bold investors with the Midas touch to pioneering entrepreneurs at the helm of today's most thrilling startups. We'll also hear from courageous go-to-market leaders navigating the frontier of emerging tech and the unsung heroes bringing all the people and parts together to form unstoppable dream teams!

  1. (Funding Recap #37) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 12/23/24

    01/06/2025

    (Funding Recap #37) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 12/23/24

    Here’s this week’s startup funding recap ($290.5 million raised across 10 featured companies): 1. Slip Robotics, led by Chris Smith, has raised $28 million in a Series B funding round. Slip Robotics provides automated truck-loading robots-as-a-service, enabling users to auto-load and unload any truck in just five minutes with SlipBot robots. 2. Mantis Robotics, led by Gerry Vannuffelen, has raised $5 million in Venture funding. Mantis Robotics provides a hardware and software platform for robotic automation, enabling safe and productive human-robot collaboration. 3. BILT, led by Nate Henderson, has raised $21 million in a Series B funding round. BILT provides a 3D-guided work instruction platform designed to enhance user experience and efficiency. 4. Hauler Hero, led by Mark Hoadley, has raised $10 million in a Seed funding round. Hauler Hero provides a tech platform for waste management companies, leveraging AI and cloud-based technology to automate invoicing, routing, dispatch, and customer engagement. 5. Backflip AI, led by Greg Mark, has raised $30 million in a Series A funding round. Backflip AI provides AI-powered 3D design software that transforms text and photos into real parts and products. 6. Anatomy Financial, co-led by Sasha King and Callum King, has raised $19 million in a Series A funding round. Anatomy Financial provides AI-powered financial solutions for healthcare organizations, transforming traditional paper-based billing workflows into streamlined digital processes. 7. Basis, led by Matt Harpe, has raised $34 million in a Series A funding round. Basis provides an AI-powered platform for automating accounting workflows, enabling accounting firms to streamline tasks such as entering transactions and checking data accuracy. 8. Decart, led by Dean Leitersdorf, has raised $32 million in a Series A funding round. Decart is an AI research lab providing an infrastructure platform that enables organizations to train massive AI models at scale. 9. Chargezoom, led by Matt Dubois, has raised $11.5 million in a Series A funding round. Chargezoom provides an AI-powered billing and integrated payments platform designed to streamline accounts receivable processes for businesses. 10. Anysphere, led by Michael Truell, has raised $100 million in a Series B funding round, elevating its post-money valuation to $2.6 billion. Anysphere is the developer of Cursor, an AI-powered coding assistant designed to enhance developer productivity by integrating advanced AI capabilities directly into the coding workflow. To get more detail on each featured startup in this and our other weekly recaps, visit: https://www.bearhugrecruiting.com/career-intelligence/category/Startup+Funding

    13 min
  2. (Funding Recap #36) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 12/16/24

    12/24/2024

    (Funding Recap #36) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 12/16/24

    Here’s this week’s startup funding recap ($264 million raised across 10 featured companies): 1. Terradot, led by James Kanoff, has raised $58.2 million funding, including $4.2 million in Seed funding and a $54 million Series A funding round. Terradot is a climate company that transforms rock weathering into a scalable global carbon removal solution. 2. WeaveGrid, led by Apoorv Bhargava, has raised $28 million in Venture funding. WeaveGrid provides a software platform that enables rapid electric vehicle (EV) adoption while ensuring grid stability. 3. Electrified Thermal, led by Daniel Stack, has raised $19 million in Venture funding. Electrified Thermal provides the Joule Hive™ Thermal Battery (JHTB), a breakthrough in electric heating technology. 4. Albert Invent, led by Nick Talken, has raised $22.5 million in a Series A funding round. Albert Invent provides a cloud-based R&D platform designed to accelerate chemical innovation in materials science using AI. 5. Raptor Maps, led by Nikhil Vadhavkar, has raised $35 million in a Series C funding round. Raptor Maps provides an integrated operating system for the solar industry, empowering asset owners to build, manage, and operate solar sites efficiently. 6. Cofactr, led by Matthew Haber, has raised $17 million in a Series A funding round. Cofactr provides a supply chain and logistics management platform designed to streamline production, processes, and policies for critical hardware manufacturers. 7. Twelve Labs, led by Jae Lee, has raised $30 million in Venture funding. Twelve Labs develops advanced video understanding technology to enable organizations to accurately and efficiently discover moments within vast video datasets. 8. Cartesia, led by Karan Goel, has raised $27 million in a Seed funding round. Cartesia develops real-time multimodal intelligence systems powered by state space models (SSMs). 9. Vapi, led by Jordan Dearsley, has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round. Vapi provides a developer platform for deploying Voice AI agents, enabling businesses to scale voice-based solutions quickly and efficiently. 10. Prezent, led by Rajat Mishra, has raised $7.3 million in Venture funding. Prezent.AI provides an AI-powered enterprise business storytelling platform designed to enhance workplace communication. To get more detail on each featured startup in this and our other weekly recaps, visit: https://www.bearhugrecruiting.com/career-intelligence/category/Startup+Funding

    17 min
  3. (Funding Recap #35) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 12/9/24

    12/14/2024

    (Funding Recap #35) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 12/9/24

    Here’s this week’s startup funding recap ($478.42 million raised across 11 featured companies): 1. AMP, led by Matanya Horowitz, has raised $91 million in a Series D funding round. AMP provides AI-powered sortation systems for the waste and recycling industry, using deep learning to identify recyclables and contaminants in real-time. 2. Heirloom, led by Shashank Samala, has raised $150 million in a Series B funding round. Heirloom develops Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology that uses enhanced limestone to capture CO2 directly from the atmosphere. 3. Tractian, led by Igor Marinelli, has raised $120 million in a Series C funding round. Tractian specializes in manufacturing AI, providing an industrial copilot platform for manufacturing leaders. 4. Infleqtion, led by Matthew Kinsella, has secured $11 million in Debt funding through the U.S. Department of Defense’s Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT) program. Infleqtion is a quantum technology company specializing in solutions for positioning, navigation, timing (PNT), and precision timekeeping. 5. Vooma, led by Jesse Buckingham, has raised over $16 million across Seed and Series A funding rounds. Vooma provides an AI-powered platform for freight brokers and carriers, streamlining logistics operations and reducing manual workloads. 6. HappyRobot, led by Pablo Palafox, has raised $15.6 million in a Series A funding round. HappyRobot specializes in AI-powered voice solutions for the logistics sector, offering agentic AI that automates communication and streamlines operations for freight brokers, 3PLs, warehouses, and supply chain businesses. 7. Nurture Boss, led by Jacob Carter, has raised $4.025 million in a Series A funding round. Nurture Boss provides an advanced AI platform tailored for the multifamily housing sector. 8. WeatherFlow-Tempest, led by Buck Lyons, has raised $3 million in a Growth funding round. WeatherFlow-Tempest provides weather technology and environmental monitoring solutions, delivering accurate, AI-driven weather data to support better decision-making and cost savings. 9. Provarity, led by Chris Cabrera, has raised $7 million in a Seed funding round. Provarity provides an AI-powered presales platform designed to optimize sales engineering performance. 10. Enterpret, led by Varun Sharma, has raised $20.8 million in a Series A funding round. Enterpret provides an AI-enabled customer feedback intelligence platform that helps product development and CX teams unify and analyze unstructured feedback from multiple channels. 11. Yurts, led by Ben Van Roo, has raised $40 million in a Series B funding round. Yurts provides generative AI (GenAI) integration solutions at scale for defense, government, and enterprise customers. To get more detail on each featured startup in this and our other weekly recaps, visit: https://www.bearhugrecruiting.com/career-intelligence/category/Startup+Funding

    15 min
  4. (Funding Recap #34) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 12/2/24

    12/02/2024

    (Funding Recap #34) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 12/2/24

    Here’s this week’s startup funding recap ($135.2 million raised across 7 featured companies): 1. Teleo, led by Vinay Shet, has raised $16.2 million in a Series A funding round. Teleo develops autonomous technology for heavy equipment, turning traditional machinery such as dump trucks, wheel loaders, and excavators into supervised autonomous machines. 2. Wherobots, led by Mo Sarwat, has raised $21.5 million in a Series A funding round. Wherobots provides a spatial intelligence cloud platform that offers planetary-scale geospatial ETL, analytics, and computer vision solutions using a modern data lakehouse architecture. 3. Constrafor, led by Anwar Ghauche, has raised $14 million in a Series A funding round and secured a $250 million credit facility. Constrafor provides a vertically integrated supply chain finance and risk management platform for the construction industry. 4. /dev/agents, led by David Singleton, has raised $56 million in seed funding at a $500 million valuation. Founded by former executives from Google, Stripe, and Meta, /dev/agents is developing an operating system for AI agents. 5. Cofactor AI, led by Adi Tantravahi, has raised $4 million in a Seed funding round. Cofactor AI provides an AI-powered platform for hospitals, leveraging its proprietary Cofactor Denial Suite to streamline claim appeal processes. 6. PlayAI, led by Mahmoud Felfel, has raised $21 million in a Seed funding round. PlayAI provides a generative AI-powered voice platform that allows developers and businesses to create and deploy natural-sounding voice applications. 7. Circleback, led by Ali Haghani, has raised $2.5 million in a Seed funding round. Circleback provides an AI-powered app designed for meeting notes and automations. To get more detail on each featured startup in this and our other weekly recaps, visit: https://www.bearhugrecruiting.com/career-intelligence/category/Startup+Funding

    17 min
  5. (Funding Recap #33) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 11/25/24

    11/25/2024

    (Funding Recap #33) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 11/25/24

    Here’s this week’s startup funding recap ($545.5 million raised across 18 featured companies): 1. OceanWell, led by Robert Bergstrom, has raised an $11 million Series A funding round. OceanWell develops modular deep-sea water farms designed for reverse osmosis desalination, harnessing natural hydrostatic pressure at depths of 400 meters. 2. Four Growers, led by Brandon Contino, has raised a $9 million Series A funding round. Four Growers develops AI-powered harvesting robots, including the GR-100 system, which uses 8 stereo cameras and proprietary AI to achieve 98% accuracy. 3. Distru, led by Blaine Hatab, has raised a $6 million Series A funding round. Distru provides a seed-to-sale ERP platform for the cannabis industry, offering tools to manage inventory, orders, and customer relations. 4. Oishii, led by Hiroki Koga, has raised $150 million in a Series B funding round. Oishii is a sustainable vertical farming startup known for its innovative produce, including Omakase Berries and Koyo Berries. 5. Ecore, led by Art Dodge, has raised an undisclosed Private Equity Round. Ecore transforms reclaimed rubber materials into sustainable, high-performance products through its TRUcircularity program. 6. Alchemyca, led by Patrick Vagner, has raised $2.5 million in a Seed funding round. Alchemyca uses enzymes, sensors, and AI to convert organic waste into renewable natural gas. 7. EarthOptics, led by Lars Dyrud, has raised $24 million in a Venture funding round. EarthOptics specializes in soil digitization and predictive agronomy, leveraging advancements in soil-sensing technologies. 8. Lightsynq, led by Mihir Bhaskar, has raised $18 million in a Series A funding round. Lightsynq develops quantum interconnect technology that links quantum processors into broader networks. 9. BrightAI, led by Alex Hawkinson, has raised $15 million in a Seed funding round. BrightAI provides an AI-driven platform, Stateful OS, designed to transform critical infrastructure industries. 10. Inversion, led by Justin Fiaschetti, has raised $44 million in a Series A funding round. Inversion enables precision on-demand delivery from space to anywhere on Earth using its fully autonomous re-entry vehicles. 11. Aquaria, led by Brian Sheng, has raised $112 million in a Debt financing round. Aquaria develops atmospheric water generators (AWGs) that produce water from the sky using patented materials science. 12. Epic Cleantec, led by Aaron Tartakovsky, has raised $12 million in a Series B funding round. Epic Cleantec provides water reuse technology for the built environment, converting wastewater into treated water. 13. Revv, led by Adi Bathla, has raised $20 million in a Venture funding round. Revv provides a B2B SaaS platform leveraging AI and advanced language models to simplify auto repair diagnostics. 14. Keychain, led by Oisin Hanrahan, has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round. Keychain provides an AI-powered platform connecting brands and retailers with ideal manufacturing partners in the CPG sector. 15. Distyl, led by Arjun Prakash, has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round. Distyl offers automation solutions for AI processes, combining AI-native software with tailored engineering. 16. Agentio, led by Arthur Leopold, has raised $12 million in a Series A funding round. Agentio provides an ad platform that simplifies purchasing advertising integrations within creator content. 17. SuperAnnotate, led by Vahan Petrosyan, has raised $36 million in a Series B funding round. SuperAnnotate provides enterprise software for managing and creating large-scale multimodal AI datasets. 18. Magma Math, led by Henrik Appert, has raised $40 million in a Series A funding round. Magma Math provides a K-12 instructional platform supporting state-aligned math pedagogy. To get more detail on each featured startup in this and our other weekly recaps, visit: https://www.bearhugrecruiting.com/career-intelligence/category/Startup+Funding

    18 min
  6. (Funding Recap #32) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 11/18/24

    11/19/2024

    (Funding Recap #32) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 11/18/24

    Here’s this week’s startup funding recap: 1. General Galactic, led by Halen Mattison, has raised an $8 million Seed funding round. General Galactic develops fossil-free fuel generation technology, transforming industrial CO2 waste streams into carbon-neutral natural gas. 2. Outbuild, led by Franco Giaquinto, has raised an $11 million Series A funding round. Outbuild provides scheduling and planning software for the construction industry, streamlining workflows with an integrated platform. 3. Vaulted Deep, led by Julia Reichelstein, has raised a $32.3 million Series A funding round. Vaulted Deep specializes in biomass carbon removal and storage (BiCRS), geologically sequestering organic wastes. 4. SwiftConnect, led by Chip Kruger and Matt Kopel, has raised a $37 million Series B funding round. SwiftConnect provides an access network platform enabling seamless connections to places and spaces using digital passes. 5. Accelsius, led by Josh Claman, has raised a $24 million Series A funding round. Accelsius develops advanced cooling systems that empower data center and edge operators to achieve business, financial, and sustainability goals. 6. Serenity, led by Peter Oneppo, has raised a $5.5 million Series A funding round. Serenity provides AI-powered Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) software that delivers ready-to-use, flexible solutions for businesses of all sizes. 7. Zengines, led by Caitlyn Truong, has raised a $9 million Venture funding round. Zengines provides an AI-based data management platform that automates data migration, reducing time, cost, and risk. 8. 11x, led by Hasan Sukkar, has raised a $50 million Series B funding round. 11x develops AI-powered digital workers that automate Go-to-Market workflows, replacing traditional software. 9. ScaleOps, led by Yodar Shafrir, has raised a $58 million Series B funding round. ScaleOps offers a real-time automated cloud resource management platform powered by AI. 10. PointFive, led by Alon Arvatz, has raised a $20 million Series A funding round. PointFive specializes in cloud cost optimization, using its proprietary DeepWaste™ Detection Engine to identify inefficiencies. 11. SocialCrowd, led by Raphael Akinsipe, has raised a $2.5 million Seed funding round. SocialCrowd provides a workforce performance platform that tracks employee progress. To get more detail on each featured startup in this and our other weekly recaps, visit: https://www.bearhugrecruiting.com/career-intelligence/category/Startup+Funding

    16 min
  7. (Funding Recap #31) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 11/11/24

    11/12/2024

    (Funding Recap #31) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 11/11/24

    Here’s this week’s startup funding recap: 1. Advex, led by Pedro Pachuca, has raised a $3.5 million Seed funding round. Advex provides AI Vision solutions for industrial manufacturing, specializing in self-healing AI Vision models that leverage diffusion-based synthetic data. 2. Transaera, led by Sorin Grama, has raised a $10.5 million Seed funding round. Transaera provides an energy-efficient platform for cooling and dehumidification, utilizing solid desiccants to absorb moisture and repurpose waste heat for humidity removal. 3. Physical Intelligence, led by Karol Hausman, has raised a $400 million Venture funding round at a $2 billion valuation. Physical Intelligence develops AI-driven brains for robots, aiming to create a single, generalist software that can control a wide range of robot models. 4. Endeavor, led by Sahitya Senapathy, has raised a $7 million Seed funding round. Endeavor provides an enterprise AI platform designed for manufacturing companies to optimize and automate operations across sales, production, and supply chain processes. 5. Ulysses, led by Akhil Voorakkara, has raised a $2 million Pre-Seed funding round. Ulysses Ecosystem Engineering develops autonomous robots for marine restoration, with a primary focus on seagrass restoration. 6. Algorized, led by Natalya Lopareva, has raised a $4.3 million Seed funding round. Algorized provides an AI-powered platform for advanced people-sensing and positioning software, enabling real-time data access and vital sign detection through a software-only upgrade to existing sensors. 7. IOTA, led by Ivan Datskov, has raised a $10.4 million Series A2 funding round. IOTA Software develops a cloud-native visualization platform that integrates critical business and process data to deliver real-time situational awareness. 8. Boston Materials, led by Anvesh Gurijala, has raised a $13.5 million Venture funding round. Boston Materials produces advanced materials using its patented Z-axis Fiber™ technology, which combines the durability of metals with the lightweight properties of plastics. 9. Sapien, led by Ron Nachum, has raised an $8.7 million Seed funding round. Sapien develops autonomous coworkers for financial analysis, transforming error-prone, time-intensive processes into rapid, precise insights. To get more detail on each featured startup in this and our other weekly recaps, visit: https://www.bearhugrecruiting.com/career-intelligence/category/Startup+Funding

    11 min
  8. (Funding Recap #30) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 11/4/24

    11/05/2024

    (Funding Recap #30) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 11/4/24

    Here’s this week’s startup funding recap: 1. LuxWall, led by Scott Thomsen, has raised a $51 million Series B funding round. LuxWall is a leader in glass-based transparent insulation solutions, focused on reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions from buildings. 2. Third Wave, led by Arshan Poursohi, has raised a $27 million Series C funding round. Third Wave Automation provides autonomous forklifts powered by its Shared Autonomy platform, enabling forklifts to operate in fully autonomous, remote assist, remote operation, or traditional manual modes. 3. Matter, led by Vishnu Sridhar, has raised a $12 million Seed funding round. Matter Intelligence provides remote sensing solutions using hyperspectral imaging, which captures thousands of narrow spectral bands to detect unique material properties. 4. Bifrost AI, led by Charles Wong and Aravind Kandiah, has raised an $8 million Series A funding round. Bifrost AI offers a generative 3D data platform that allows AI teams to quickly create and validate datasets for training AI systems. 5. CREW Carbon, led by Dr. Joachim Katchinoff, has raised a $5.3 million Seed funding round. CREW Carbon is a climate tech startup focused on removing biogenic CO2 from wastewater treatment facilities. 6. Avina, led by Ron Fisher, has raised a $3.2 million Seed funding round. Avina provides an AI-powered companion for B2B sales teams, helping sellers from their first meeting to their last email. 7. Latii, led by Santiago Bueno, has raised a $5 million Seed funding round. Latii is a managed marketplace and supply chain automation tool for construction materials, serving high-end dealers, architects, and homeowners. 8. Andium, led by Jory Schwach, has raised a $21.7 million Series B funding round. Andium provides Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solutions for remote-field monitoring and communications in industrial sectors. 9. Spot AI, led by Rish Gupta, has raised $31 million in equity funding. Spot AI transforms traditional video security cameras into AI-powered systems that help organizations derive actionable insights from their video data. 10. Decart, led by Dean Leitersdorf, has raised a $21 million Seed funding round. Decart is an AI research lab that enables organizations to train massive AI models at scale with enhanced efficiency and cost savings. To get more detail on each featured startup in this and our other weekly recaps, visit: https://www.bearhugrecruiting.com/career-intelligence/category/Startup+Funding

    20 min
See All (52)

Trailer

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Welcome to The Bearhug Experience, where we cozy up to the fire in our digital den and immerse ourselves in the inspiration born from exploring the hidden narratives and inevitable plot twists that shape every compelling startup journey. Join us as we showcase inspirational guests, from bold investors with the Midas touch to pioneering entrepreneurs at the helm of today's most thrilling startups. We'll also hear from courageous go-to-market leaders navigating the frontier of emerging tech and the unsung heroes bringing all the people and parts together to form unstoppable dream teams!

Information

  • Creator
    Kraig Ward
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2025
  • Episodes
    52
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Kraig Ward
  • Show Website
    The Bearhug Experience