i/o Ventures

Iron Ox, Inc. is an innovative company that specializes in developing robotics for crop harvesting and sustainable indoor farming systems. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in San Carlos, California, Iron Ox operates greenhouses in Gilroy, California, and Lockhart, Texas. The company utilizes a combination of robotics, plant science, and machine learning to cultivate fresh, pesticide-free produce, including various leafy greens and culinary herbs. Their flagship product, Angus, is an autonomous farm mobile robot designed to enhance agricultural efficiency. By focusing on sustainable practices, Iron Ox aims to minimize agriculture's environmental impact while improving the availability, quality, and flavor of its products for consumers.

vidIQ is a YouTube video marketing and audience management platform based in San Francisco. It provides an end-to-end suite of tools that help brands, agencies, and video creators grow views and subscribers by optimizing content release times, YouTube SEO, keyword and competitor analysis, and channel audits, along with daily ideas and influencer connections. The platform also offers analytics across YouTube and associated social channels, bulk description editing, comment moderation, and syndication features to extend reach on connected networks, enabling users to monitor engagement, discover opportunities, and streamline their content development workflow.

Cozy Services Ltd., established in 2012 and headquartered in Portland, Oregon, specializes in online rental solutions for landlords and tenants. The company offers a suite of services including property listings, rent estimates, online rental applications, tenant screening, rent payments, renters insurance, and expense tracking. Cozy simplifies property management for small and medium landlords, making it a convenient platform for both parties involved in the rental process.

Swoopt is a mobile application that offers daily fantasy sports games to its users. Users of the mobile app are capable of playing free and paid fantasy sports games and win cash prizes. Swoopt was founded in 2011 by Matthew Himelstein and Michael Ferguson and is based in California.

vidIQ is a YouTube video marketing and audience management platform based in San Francisco. It provides an end-to-end suite of tools that help brands, agencies, and video creators grow views and subscribers by optimizing content release times, YouTube SEO, keyword and competitor analysis, and channel audits, along with daily ideas and influencer connections. The platform also offers analytics across YouTube and associated social channels, bulk description editing, comment moderation, and syndication features to extend reach on connected networks, enabling users to monitor engagement, discover opportunities, and streamline their content development workflow.

vidIQ is a YouTube video marketing and audience management platform based in San Francisco. It provides an end-to-end suite of tools that help brands, agencies, and video creators grow views and subscribers by optimizing content release times, YouTube SEO, keyword and competitor analysis, and channel audits, along with daily ideas and influencer connections. The platform also offers analytics across YouTube and associated social channels, bulk description editing, comment moderation, and syndication features to extend reach on connected networks, enabling users to monitor engagement, discover opportunities, and streamline their content development workflow.

Appserse is a developer of a mobile application platform designed to help app publishers measure the return on investment (ROI) of their marketing campaigns. The platform enables users to track revenue generated from various marketing channels, providing insights through metrics, channels, and cohorts. This functionality allows businesses to accurately forecast revenue and allocate their marketing budgets more effectively. Founded by experienced app developers Hugo Troche, Matt Farnell, and Alex Kim, who collectively have developed over 20 mobile apps, Appsperse addresses a critical need in the industry for precise performance measurement of marketing expenditures.

Onefeat operates a unique online social gaming platform that encourages users to engage in real-life activities, earning points and achieving missions through their iOS app.

Backplane is a platform designed to facilitate connections among individuals who share common interests. Its initial community, LittleMonsters.com, centered around Lady Gaga, has grown to nearly one million members. The company emphasizes the importance of meaningful interactions between consumers and brands, aiming to foster authentic communities. Backplane advocates for the development of niche social networks that serve specific purposes, rather than a singular, overarching network. By partnering with leading brands, Backplane seeks to create environments where members can engage more deeply and purposefully.

Backplane is a platform designed to facilitate connections among individuals who share common interests. Its initial community, LittleMonsters.com, centered around Lady Gaga, has grown to nearly one million members. The company emphasizes the importance of meaningful interactions between consumers and brands, aiming to foster authentic communities. Backplane advocates for the development of niche social networks that serve specific purposes, rather than a singular, overarching network. By partnering with leading brands, Backplane seeks to create environments where members can engage more deeply and purposefully.

Cortex is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that leverages artificial intelligence to assist marketing executives in understanding the effectiveness of their visual content. With brands projected to spend significant amounts on visual content, many face challenges in accurately assessing what resonates with their audiences due to reliance on outdated methodologies like focus groups and A/B testing. Cortex addresses this critical issue by providing marketing strategists with advanced market research and visual intelligence, utilizing AI and machine learning to enhance decision-making and optimize visual performance.

PrePay is an online marketplace that sells store credit on behalf of local merchants with the purpose of guaranteeing future customer loyalty.Customers buy multiple visits in advance for reward credit.Gift cards increase repeat business and average spend.

CodeEval is a platform designed for hosting coding challenges, catering to over 20,000 competitive developers. It allows clients, including prominent companies such as eBay, BitTorrent, Warner Bros, and Blizzard, to create and manage technical challenges for sourcing and screening developers. The platform facilitates the auto-evaluation of programming tasks, enabling employers to identify promising candidates from a wide applicant pool by reviewing live coding submissions. Additionally, CodeEval supports freelancers and developers in honing their skills through competitive interactions with peers. Its technical screening product has been integrated into CodeVue and is part of HireVue's digital interviewing platform.

Pieceable provides a software solution that allows native iOS applications to be run directly within a web browser. This functionality is particularly beneficial for developers and marketers, as it offers a straightforward method to demonstrate applications without the need for installation. By enabling seamless web-based access to iOS apps, Pieceable enhances the efficiency of app demonstrations and user engagement, streamlining the process for stakeholders involved in app development and marketing.

Ravn Inc. is an augmented reality company based in San Francisco, California, focused on enhancing decision-making in the defense sector. Founded in 2017, Ravn develops a platform that provides soldiers with real-time video feeds from autonomous drones, aircraft, and other sources, delivering critical battlefield intelligence. The company's software is designed to create and distribute actionable edge data, addressing the challenge of accessing reliable information in a field where data is often abundant but actionable insights are scarce. By enabling modern coordination for national security, Ravn aims to enhance the operational effectiveness of military personnel and decision-makers.

Appstores is making it easier for consumers to find apps by giving small and large niche publishers and API/platform companies the tools to showcase apps most relevant to their users.

Appbistro is an application marketplace for Facebook pages. At Appbistro, page administrators can quickly find applications that they can easily plug into their pages and quickly increase the engagement and reach of their pages. The applications within the marketplace are built by known and vetted Facebook developers, and feature applications for Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp, and more. Appbistro's parent company, MMTG Labs, Inc., was acquired by InMobi in July 2012.

Apprats creates apps that allow you to engage your audience on their terms by distributing your content on the hottest social platforms. "AppRats, which demo'd October 12 at i/o Ventures, has taken a gamble on the fact that the next iteration of celebrity will come from YouTube ... 'You need a different set of skill sets for the Internet,' says founder Charlene Kuperstein, and has banked itself on the Facebook platform, trying to provide individuals with over 25,000 YouTube subscribers with custom branded platforms in order to target their viewership market." --TechCrunch Since it's inception in Fall 09, AppRats has been focused on bringing the unique and amazing YouTube channel experience to more of the world. AppRats was founded by Ryan Moriarty, PhD candidate in Computer Science at UCLA and Charlene Kuperstein, Astrophysics major from Columbia University.

Dapt, our latest project. And we finally have something we would love to show you guys. With Dapt we are trying to make something that lets you show your friends what you find. It could range from pictures, videos, articles or anything on the web. Many a time we find something and think to ourselves, hey my friends were talking about something like this. And usually we fiddle clumsily with our email or Facebook or GTalk to try and show it to them. And if it’s to a group of people they all end up seeing it separately and the conversations end up getting scattered.

Anomaly Innovations is a software company focused on finding elegant solutions to common problems. Their main product is Cadmus, which is a real-time service that manages your stream (Twitter, FriendFeed and RSS) by displaying the most relevant content since the last time you checked in.

Damntheradio is a company that specializes in helping music bands and brands develop meaningful relationships with their fans. It offers a fan management application designed for social media platforms, enabling users to create impactful promotions and track their performance over time. The company focuses on loyalty and relationship marketing, providing exclusive rewards to influencers to enhance engagement. Through its tools, Damntheradio aims to empower artists and brands to foster stronger connections with their audiences.