Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University, founded in 1900, is a prominent global research university located in the United States, serving over 11,000 students and employing approximately 4,000 faculty and staff. It boasts a diverse alumni network of 84,000 individuals and is renowned for its exceptional programs in arts and technology, emphasizing interdisciplinary collaboration and innovative educational leadership. As a non-profit organization, Carnegie Mellon also engages in various research and philanthropic initiatives, contributing to its mission of advancing knowledge and fostering creativity. The university is consistently ranked among the top institutions worldwide, reflecting its commitment to excellence in education and research.

Jeffer Choudhry

Senior Managing Director and Head of Investments

Charles A. Kennedy

Chief Investment Officer

Carrie Nelson

Associate Vice President for Finance and Controller

Erik Ogren

Managing Director of Investments

Scott Siemens

Investment Manager

Stefanie Wozniak

Director, Investment Operations

18 past transactions

Arieca

Series A in 2022
Arieca manufactures and distributes a thermally conductive rubber composite. Arieca's composite is a stretchable, thermally conductive rubber that combines elasticity of soft silicone with the thermal of metal to be used as circuit wiring, sensors, and passive heat exchangers, allowing manufacturers to deploy an alternative form of rubber that improve the performance electronics and help them to safely interact with humans.

Trainwell

Series A in 2022
Delta Trainer is a one-on-one remote personal training company that develops a smartwatch for fitness training and tracking. The company's watches have a built-in trainer assignment for guidance and also provide live feedback on a real-time basis that enable users to analyze the problems they are facing during their workouts.

Ecotone Renewables

Equity Crowdfunding in 2021
Ecotone Renewables make sustainable food and agriculture systems more accessible and prevalent outside the industrial scale. Ecotone is dedicated to building the tools necessary to empower communities to redevelop and grow through sustainable food practices. Ecotone Renewables has developed the “Seahorse”, which reinvents the food and plant waste disposal system, taking food that would otherwise be wasted and turning it into renewable energy and nutrient-rich fertilizer, through the process of anaerobic digestion. Ecotone aims to close the food loop by transforming otherwise wasted food and energy into nutrients that restart the food loop.

Finish Robotics

Seed Round in 2021
Finish Robotics' mission is to solve the labor crisis on the construction job site through job-specific autonomous mobile robots. It was founded in 2021 and is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Wisy

Seed Round in 2020
A global AI platform with image recognition to optimize products on display. Wisy enables retail excellence and maximize sales by bringing products into the light, to be seen and be sold.

Trainwell

Pre Seed Round in 2019
Delta Trainer is a one-on-one remote personal training company that develops a smartwatch for fitness training and tracking. The company's watches have a built-in trainer assignment for guidance and also provide live feedback on a real-time basis that enable users to analyze the problems they are facing during their workouts.

Bloomfield

Convertible Note in 2018
Bloomfield Robotics specializes in the assessment of plant health and performance through innovative technology. The company operates a digital platform designed for breeders, growers, and scientists, enabling them to study plants more efficiently. By utilizing deep learning and portable cameras, Bloomfield collects detailed data on various aspects of plant health, including growth rate, water usage, and nutrient uptake. This valuable information supports the enhancement of plant breeding programs, optimizes crop management practices, and advances scientific research. Ultimately, Bloomfield Robotics aims to assist farmers in improving crop yield and quality while minimizing environmental impact and fostering the development of new plant varieties.

Bloomfield

Convertible Note in 2018
Bloomfield Robotics specializes in the assessment of plant health and performance through innovative technology. The company operates a digital platform designed for breeders, growers, and scientists, enabling them to study plants more efficiently. By utilizing deep learning and portable cameras, Bloomfield collects detailed data on various aspects of plant health, including growth rate, water usage, and nutrient uptake. This valuable information supports the enhancement of plant breeding programs, optimizes crop management practices, and advances scientific research. Ultimately, Bloomfield Robotics aims to assist farmers in improving crop yield and quality while minimizing environmental impact and fostering the development of new plant varieties.

Solvvy

Seed Round in 2016
Solvvy is a machine learning startup reinventing the customer experience. Its first product, Solvvy for Support, delivers a better self-service platform that improves customer satisfaction and decreases costs for businesses. This intelligent NLP solution is the first customer support SaaS application based on Solvvy’s powerful answer graph technology. Solvvy deploys in days and delivers immediate financial returns for business. Solvvy is already trusted by leading brands including UpWork, TaskRabbit, Rover.com, DoubleDutch, Automattic and others. The company was founded by esteemed technologists Mehdi Samadi and Justin Betteridge and serial entrepreneur/CEO, Mahesh Ram. Solvvy is fortunate to be backed by leading Silicon Valley investors

PieceMaker Technologies

Seed Round in 2015
PieceMaker's Factory brings the future of toys into the store. Now anyone can experience the wonder of 3D printing in person right in the store. With the swipe of a finger, PieceMaker lets its clients create personalized toys or jewelry and have them come to life in front of their eyes. Right in store, in under 30 minutes. Just 4 easy steps to get an awesome 3D printed piece.

Collected

Convertible Note in 2014
Collected Inc. provides a hosted application that delivers contextually-relevant content from documents and presentations in users cloud-storage accounts as they type. Its application analyzes user’s documents and presentations to identify reusable content. The company’s application supports various workflows, including Microsoft Word and PowerPoint; and cloud-storage accounts, such as Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, Gmail, and OneDrive. Collected Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Rebion

Grant in 2012
REBIScan is a medical device manufacturing company that specializes in data analytics firm developing pediatric vision scanners to detect serious eye conditions. It manufactures innovative devices for definitively identifying life-altering diseases that manifest from functional impairments in the brain most notably, lazy eye and traumatic brain injury. The company was founded in 2009 and headquartered in Massachusetts, United States.

Nowait

Seed Round in 2012
Nowait, Inc. operates a restaurant reservation application that offers an electronic waitlist system and seating tool, allowing consumers to join queues at restaurants using their smartphones. Founded in 2010 and based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the company aims to enhance dining experiences by streamlining various aspects of restaurant management, including waitlists, table turnover, and analytics. By facilitating efficient service, Nowait enables guests to save time while accessing a network of restaurants across the United States. As of early 2017, Nowait functions as a subsidiary of Yelp Inc.

Voci Technologies

Series A in 2012
Voci Technologies specializes in developing advanced speech recognition servers that convert audio into text for enterprise applications, aiming to enhance customer insights and monitor performance metrics in call centers. Their flagship product, V-Blaze, caters to businesses of all sizes by providing accurate speech-to-text processing for analysis, as well as a voice-based biometrics solution. The company also offers training, support, and customization services to meet the specific needs of their clients. Voci Technologies serves a variety of industries, particularly those that are highly regulated, by ensuring compliance and safeguarding audio data. Additionally, they produce automatic speech-to-text voicemail outputs for telecommunications companies. Founded in 2008 and based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Voci Technologies became a subsidiary of Medallia, Inc. in 2020.

Carnegie Speech

Series A in 2007
Carnegie Speech Company, Inc., a speech assessment and tutoring software company, provides speech training technology to help to speak English clearly. It offers Carnegie Speech Assessment, which rate the proficiency of spoken English; Native Accent, which teach to pronounce English clearly; and YOUTH Database, a set of recordings of children reading words, phrases, and sentences in English. The company serves BPO and education markets. Carnegie Speech Company, Inc. was founded in 2001 and is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Carnegie Learning

Series B in 2001
Carnegie Learning is a leading publisher of innovative, research-based math curricula for middle school, high school, and post-secondary students. Providing differentiated instruction to schools across the United States, Carnegie Learning is helping students to succeed in math, creating a gateway to graduation and preparing them for the 21st century.