Ensemble VC

*** 🚀 Closing Out an Unforgettable 2024 at Ensemble VC 🚀 *** This past week, our team came together in Austin to close out the year, set the course for 2025, and reflect on some truly incredible milestones from 2024. From hosting our AGM under the solar eclipse 🌒, to three rocket-ship investments, to celebrating a new unicorn 🦄 in our portfolio, this year has been nothing short of extraordinary. HIGHLIGHT: Launching our GTM platform – a cutting-edge tool that lets our portfolio companies optimize their sales funnels using the same vast company/executive metadata we’ve spent years building. It’s just one example of how our relentless focus on innovation is driving real, scalable impact. At every in-person week, we prioritize team-building, and this time was no exception. We tried our hand at blacksmithing, forging something tangible as a team. But the real breakthrough? The first-ever Ensemble Annual Hackathon. For three intense days, we split into teams and pushed ourselves to develop new tech fast. The results were mind-blowing, and it’s safe to say this is going to be a yearly tradition! 🛠️💻 Conrad Shang and Lilly Vernor took home the prize this year. The win was well-deserved (they delivered a working product in three days), but the palpitant sting of defeat for the rest of us suggests next year’s competition will be even more intense. As we looked back, we were actually blown away by how far we’ve come. The technologies we’ve developed this year – things we couldn’t have imagined a year ago – have already become staples of our core processes. Sharing these breakthroughs with our investors has only reinforced one thing: we are far ahead of the data-driven curve. WE CAN’T WAIT to show you the tech we’ve built – and we're hungry to tackle a new set of challenges in 2025 that will push us to reimagine what’s possible once again. Here’s to bold ideas, relentless execution, and another year of building the future. 💡 Thank you to Nicole Harbert Stump and Gopinath Sundaramurthy, Ph.D for organizing such an incredible week. Ian Heinrich Collin West Nesta Lenhert-Scholer Rooney Pitchford

Last year at Data Science Salon ATX, I had the incredible opportunity to sit down with Gopinath Sundaramurthy, from Ensemble VC for a fireside chat about: The (Data) Science Behind Identifying Unicorns and Camels" in the startup ecosystem. 🦄🐪 We talked about what defines a Unicorn and a Camel in the #startup world, discussing why, in many cases, being a Camel—capital-efficient and resilient—can be more advantageous than being a Unicorn. We also explored the critical role of #VCs in identifying these companies early on in their journey, and how this aligns with the power law dynamics of venture capital. Check out the recording [link in comments] As we gear up for #DSSATX 2025 with Oracle on Feb 12-13, 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗲. 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗮 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗜/𝗠𝗟 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗼𝗽-𝘁𝗶𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀, 𝘄𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘆𝗼𝘂! Apply here to be part of our startup showcase: https://lnkd.in/gqBDnxWg #DataScience #Startups #VentureCapital #machinelearning #AI #genAI

Thrilled to announce our investment in CHAOS Industries! It’s an honor to partner with John T., Gavin, Brett Cummings, Mark, and their entire remarkable team, along with the elite group of investors. CHAOS’s next-generation communications solutions represent the latest step in the defense industry’s transition to integrated software/hardware platforms. It’s not just rethinking defense and technology, but rethinking how those capabilities are built – from the ground up. CHAOS is going to make defense teams smarter, faster, and more adaptable than ever, while offering the same technology for commercial applications. We can’t wait to see the ripple effects their innovation will have across industries. CHAOS joins Saronic Technologies and ICON on the list of groundbreaking DeepTech startups in Ensemble’s portfolio. From the press release: “U.S. national security is at an inflection point,” said CHAOS Industries Founder and Co-CEO John Tenet. “As our adversaries become more sophisticated, America must embrace next-generation technological innovation to combat more complex national security threats. This funding will accelerate CHAOS Industries’ ability to provide the cutting-edge technological solutions the U.S. and its allies need to remain secure.” “CHAOS Industries is in a prime position to emerge as a premier developer of defense technology,” said CHAOS Industries Founder and Co-CEO Dr. Bo Marr. “With this latest funding round, we will be able to innovate our existing products and develop new solutions. This is an investment not just in our company, but in the security of our nation.” Overmatch Ventures Bo Marr, PhD https://lnkd.in/gjE2FMgH

The defense industry is in a moment of transformation, which makes it an exciting time to work with CHAOS Industries, a company developing innovations with real potential for scale. We're delighted to partner with John, Bo, Gavin, Brett, and the entire CHAOS Industries team to bring new AI, robotics, and machine learning technologies to the defense industry #AccelFamily Read more from our partner Steve Loughlin: https://lnkd.in/ghQRk5E2

Why does new tech have such a hard time scaling in healthcare, especially when the potential benefits are so enormous? Do patients want to be treated by robots? Is the goal to remove humans from the equation? How should founders think about interacting with the healthcare "tech stack"? We'd been wrestling with these questions for a while, so we reached out to Danny Freed at Blueprint for input. Danny's app-based platform for mental health therapists has taken off like wildfire; unsurprisingly, his insight helped us to completely reframe our questions around tech adoption in healthcare. Read the article here! Conrad Shang Collin West Gopinath Sundaramurthy, Ph.D Lightbank Bonfire Ventures 🔥

We're excited to partner with Dolphin. They bring a shared, strategic vision and tactical industry expertise that we value enormously. Most importantly, Dolphin continually demonstrates how they expand their premium service to further their client's goals and we are honored to play a part in that.

Congrats to Luke Arrigoni and Loti AI for keeping the amazing momentum rolling!

**Ensemble VC Partners Earn Top Spots on Kauffman Fund Returners Index!** Thrilled to share that Ensemble VC's very own Conrad Shang (#29) and Collin West (#62) have been named among the top investors in the Kauffman Fellows Fund Returners Index, recognizing their career-long success in backing standout startups. The Kauffman Fellows Program has been instrumental in shaping Conrad’s and Collin’s success – no other VC network provides the experience, insight, and network power that KF does. To be recognized as an outperformer among such an elite group of investors is both humbling and inspiring! Proud to see Conrad and Collin recognized for their commitment to enabling entrepreneurs and building impactful companies. Conrad’s track record includes investments in 7 unicorns, with 3 exits totaling $6B. Collin’s portfolio features 6 unicorns, including a $1B+ exit. And we’re just getting started–as our platform continues to blow us away with its ability to find top teams earlier than ever in their development, we look forward to adding new unicorns and liquidity events to Conrad’s and Collin’s lists. #VentureCapital #Startups #KauffmanIndex #DataDriven

Blueprint announces Blueprint 2.0! "Designed by therapists, powered by AI" "Therapists enter this profession to help people, not to drown in paperwork. But today, they’re spending up to 30% of their time on documentation just to meet insurance demands. It’s not just draining their energy—it’s impacting the very care they’re working so hard to provide." We're so happy to see the hard work from Danny Freed and Blueprint materialize into Blueprint 2.0, which now surfaces AI-powered insights and suggestions to enhance care delivery across the entire client journey. Read Danny's post here: https://lnkd.in/gFxdYcPu

Khosla Ventures joins Loti AI’s mission to combat deepfakes on the front lines. We’re excited to welcome KV to an already great group of investors in Loti AI’s seed round. Luke Arrigoni is truly an amazing founder on a generational mission: to protect the integrity and authenticity of online identities. The company applies advanced facial and voice recognition capabilities to monitor the web for deepfakes and other inappropriate uses of likenesses online. Luke is supported by a uniquely sophisticated team, and his career in the entertainment industry puts Loti in prime position to access the all-important Hollywood market, where the use of likenesses according to contract is of paramount importance. Read the press release here: https://lnkd.in/g2YjUfNk Conrad Shang Collin West Gopinath Sundaramurthy, Ph.D FUSE Bling Capital K5 Global Alpha Edison