Are You Assigning Ops People to Transformation Work?

💸 Who Got Funded – Week of August 11–18, 2025

Here’s your founder’s cheat sheet on standout Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A rounds from last week — with insights on why they got the check.

🧪 Pre-Seed

• Riva Money ($3M) – Cross-border payments
  🚦Why it matters: Ex-Revolut and JPMorgan operators behind this one. Even at pre-seed, experience and industry connectivity is a magnet.
  📍London | Lead: Project A Ventures

⚙️ Seed

• Mako ($8.5M) – AI for GPU code optimization
  🔥Why it matters: Deep tech meets chip strategy. Alignment with hardware players (AMD, Tenstorrent) adds conviction.
  📍New York | Lead: M13

• Continua ($8M) – AI applied to group messaging
  🧠Why it matters: Consumer UX innovation backed by GV + Bessemer = rare signal in the AI/social space.
  📍Boston

• Uno Platform ($2.5M) – Cross-platform dev tools
  🔧Why it matters: Infra + developer tooling is back. Anything that expands cross-device codebases is on investors’ radar.
  📍Montreal

• Olee Space ($3M) – Laser comms for defense
  🚀Why it matters: Space and defense are back in VC favor. Investors looking for real-world IP + national interest plays.
  📍New Delhi

🧱 Series A

• Vulcan Elements ($65M) – US-based rare-earth magnet manufacturing
  🏗️Why it matters: Domestic industrial tech with deep infrastructure implications. Big bet on American-made supply chains.
  📍Durham, NC | Lead: Altimeter Capital

• Novig ($18M) – Peer-to-peer sports betting
  🎲Why it matters: Fintech + regulatory wedge + massive fan behavior = fundable cocktail.
  📍NYC

• JEH Aerospace ($11M) – Advanced manufacturing for aerospace
  🛠️Why it matters: Cost-efficient build cycles for space and defense = very fundable in 2025.
  📍Atlanta + Hyderabad

• Chowdeck ($9M) – Food delivery for under-served African cities
  📦Why it matters: Emerging market scale plays with hyper-local logistics still attract growth funding.
  📍Lagos, Nigeria

• Jocasta Neuroscience ($35M) – Neurodegeneration biotech
  🧬Why it matters: Aging populations + cutting-edge science = Series A magnet.
  📍Scottsdale, AZ

• Datumo ($15.5M) – AI model evaluation and benchmarking
  📊Why it matters: “Who watches the watchers?” AI evaluation startups are hot right now.
  📍Seoul | Lead: Salesforce Ventures

• Tavily ($25M) – AI agent-to-agent communication
  🗣️Why it matters: Infra for AI-native businesses—investors betting on internal comms between agents.
  📍NYC | Co-leads: Insight, Alpha Wave

• Jump ($23M) – Sports fan engagement platform
  🙌Why it matters: Category-defining user motion + cultural wedge (fandom).
  📍NYC | Lead: Seven Seven Six (Alexis Ohanian)

• Protege ($25M) – Securing AI training data pipelines
  🔐Why it matters: Data trust layers will be required for every AI company.
  📍Palo Alto | Lead: Footwork, CRV

• Equatic ($11.6M) – Carbon capture through seawater
  🌊Why it matters: Innovative climate tech with commercial deployment potential.
  📍LA + Singapore

• Arintra ($21M) – AI for medical billing
  💸Why it matters: AI + vertical SaaS + healthcare = predictable revenue models.
  📍NY + Bangalore

🧠 CEO Insight of the Week: Ops ≠ Transformation

Founders often misfire on a critical decision: assigning operational team members to run transformation projects.

Here’s what we’ve been seeing:

If you’re asking your head of ops to launch a new business unit, test a new pricing model, or reimagine your GTM motion — they may have the wrong wiring for it.

💡 Think of transformation projects as bets:

• They need ambiguity tolerance

• They require rapid feedback loops

• They don’t look “efficient” at first

Transformation needs a founder lens or a product-strategy lead who can own messy work. Not someone whose skill set shines in SOPs and OKRs.

📌 BIG TIP: Don’t Confuse Execution Skill with Change Leadership

Execution leaders make trains run on time.
Transformation leaders lay down new tracks.

Ask yourself:

• Is this project improving something or reinventing something?

• Who owns it? Do they have a model for transformation work?

• Have you set up the right expectations and support?

If you're frustrated that bold initiatives stall out—it’s often because you've asked an optimizer to be an architect.

🎯 Want help mapping the difference for your org?

We’re doing 30-minute whiteboard sessions with CEOs on:

• What’s a transformation motion vs. an ops motion in your roadmap

• Who on your team is best suited for each

• Where you might be stuck due to misalignment

We’ve been running AI roundtables, and this is coming up pretty frequently. The need for AI transformation is high - the number of individuals inside an organization that can run transformation projects is low.

We can help figure out the gap.

Reply with "TRANSFORMATION MAP" and we’ll send you a link to book your session.

All the best,

Apryl Syed

ApetureCodex/The Founders Edge