Investor directory

Techstars

Techstars Central LLC, founded in 2006 and based in Boulder, Colorado, operates as a startup accelerator and venture capital firm focused on supporting early-stage technology-oriented companies. It specializes in a mentorship-driven accelerator program, selecting ten startups each summer to participate in a three-month incubation period, offering funding of $120,000 in exchange for equity. Techstars invests primarily in sectors such as fintech, artificial intelligence, blockchain, augmented reality, and IoT, while avoiding investments in medical devices, healthcare technology, and local service-oriented businesses. In addition to its primary accelerator, Techstars has various specialized programs, including those focused on music, retail, mobility, and social impact, with global reach extending to regions such as Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The firm prefers taking minority stakes, typically between six and ten percent, without seeking board representation or investor rights. Techstars has built a robust network of entrepreneurs, mentors, and corporate partners to foster innovation and growth within its portfolio, which includes over 1,000 companies with a significant collective market capitalization.

Focus

Pre Seed RoundSeed RoundArtificial IntelligenceMachine LearningSeries AShow more
http://techstars.com/ventures
https://crunchbase.com/organization/techstars
https://facebook.com/techstars
https://linkedin.com/company/techstars
https://twitter.com/techstars
https://www.capitaliq.com/CIQDotNet/company.aspx?companyId=431767203
https://www.privateequityinternational.com/database/#/profile?id=14977

Ethan Austin

MD of the Techstars Western Union Accelerator

Mark Tortorella

Advisor

Nathanial Zola

MD

Past deals in Visual Search

EyeLights

Series A in 2023
EyeLights SAS is a French company that specializes in designing and manufacturing GPS-enabled motorcycle helmets. Founded in 2016 and based in Labege, EyeLights offers a unique head-up display that projects navigation, warnings about hazards, and traffic information directly into a rider's line of sight, allowing them to maintain focus on the road. The system integrates with smartphones via Bluetooth, enabling users to listen to music, take calls, and program road trips using voice commands. The compact device can be installed in under five minutes on various helmet types and operates for over eight hours, providing clear visibility even in challenging weather conditions. Weighing less than 100 grams, the EyeLights product is designed for practicality and ease of use, enhancing the overall riding experience.

Visual Feeder

Seed Round in 2022
Visual Feeder Corporation operates an online marketplace that connects landlords with an opportunity to monetize their vacant space by projecting branded visual experiences on their windows space. It offers WindowScape street level digital campaign in stores, shopping malls, and high traffic retail locations. The company is based in Chicago, Illinois.

SwingVision

Seed Round in 2021
SwingVision provides real-time video analysis and coaching to athletes using proprietary machine vision on just a single smartphone.

Hyperspec-ai

Funding Round in 2021
Hyperspec.ai is developing a next-generation vision pipeline that will utilize equirectangular depth imagery and cross-view localization to enable perception in robotics. The technology is quite promising and has a tremendous amount of scope. However, there are key bottlenecks that need to be addressed, in order for the systems to be economically viable. One of the key bottlenecks is the High Definition Map requirement to enable the car to have scene context. In this paper, we describe the state of the art and present a next-generation orthogonal approach to creating scene context for self-driving cars. Hyperspec.ai is developing a next-generation vision pipeline that will utilize equirectangular imagery instead of standard pin-hole images to gain an understanding of the scene. We present novel innovations that will contribute to the perception stacks which will dramatically revolutionize how self-driving cars create scene context while navigating in complex environments

Hyperspec-ai

Seed Round in 2021
Hyperspec.ai is developing a next-generation vision pipeline that will utilize equirectangular depth imagery and cross-view localization to enable perception in robotics. The technology is quite promising and has a tremendous amount of scope. However, there are key bottlenecks that need to be addressed, in order for the systems to be economically viable. One of the key bottlenecks is the High Definition Map requirement to enable the car to have scene context. In this paper, we describe the state of the art and present a next-generation orthogonal approach to creating scene context for self-driving cars. Hyperspec.ai is developing a next-generation vision pipeline that will utilize equirectangular imagery instead of standard pin-hole images to gain an understanding of the scene. We present novel innovations that will contribute to the perception stacks which will dramatically revolutionize how self-driving cars create scene context while navigating in complex environments

Braze Mobility

Pre Seed Round in 2020
Braze Mobility provides an affordable navigation solution for wheelchair users. Its blind spot sensors enable clients to avoid the embarrassment, damage, or injury that can occur when they are moving around. The solution automatically detects obstacles and provides intuitive audio, visual, and vibration alerts to the wheelchair driver, so that they understand the location of an object and how close it is, while staying fully in control.

Y-hat AI

Pre Seed Round in 2020
For anyone with large volumes of video, Y-hat AI offers semantic search in videos stored on our cloud through AI. This results in 36,000x faster search compared to lexical search of manually written video tags and titles stored elsewhere.

Vake

Pre Seed Round in 2020
Vake applies intelligence to satellite images to fingerprint all vessel traffic at sea, with the vision to perform this globally in real-time.

SwingVision

Pre Seed Round in 2020
SwingVision provides real-time video analysis and coaching to athletes using proprietary machine vision on just a single smartphone.

Visual Feeder

Pre Seed Round in 2020
Visual Feeder Corporation operates an online marketplace that connects landlords with an opportunity to monetize their vacant space by projecting branded visual experiences on their windows space. It offers WindowScape street level digital campaign in stores, shopping malls, and high traffic retail locations. The company is based in Chicago, Illinois.

LuminDx, Inc.

Pre Seed Round in 2019
LuminDx, Inc. develops a mobile application that helps physicians to visual search skin conditions using computer vision and artificial intelligence. It offers LuminDx that enables patients to take photos of a skin condition; answer simple questions; and instantly see the most similar skin diseases and the right questions to ask to determine the next step. Its technology helps to address various skin conditions, as well as analyze clinical symptoms, enabling patients to reduce unnecessary prescriptions, treatment, and dermatology referrals. LuminDx, Inc. was incorporated in 2017 and is based in Boston, Massachusetts.

weview

Pre Seed Round in 2018
Weview helps shops and brands engage their customers by embedding video reviews on the product page. Through machine learning, weview automises its processes to source and optimize videos on display. weview is embedding brand-safe review videos from their platform on retailers’ and brands’ product pages which increases time spent on site and conversion rates while optimising the shopper experience.

Obsess

Pre Seed Round in 2018
Obsess is reinventing the e-commerce experience on mobile to make it visual, interactive and contextual. To replace today's flat and tedious grid-of-thumbnails online shopping interface that hasn't changed in 25 years when it was created by Amazon to sell books. The Obsess cloud platform enables brands and retailers to run highly engaging and branded online virtual stores on their sites.

Locus Insights

Funding Round in 2018
Locus Insights uses proprietary eye tracking software to gather and analyze data on where users look on their phone screen in real-time to help companies optimize their user experience and conversion rates on mobile devices.

Obsess

Pre Seed Round in 2017
Obsess is reinventing the e-commerce experience on mobile to make it visual, interactive and contextual. To replace today's flat and tedious grid-of-thumbnails online shopping interface that hasn't changed in 25 years when it was created by Amazon to sell books. The Obsess cloud platform enables brands and retailers to run highly engaging and branded online virtual stores on their sites.

EyeLights

Seed Round in 2017
EyeLights SAS is a French company that specializes in designing and manufacturing GPS-enabled motorcycle helmets. Founded in 2016 and based in Labege, EyeLights offers a unique head-up display that projects navigation, warnings about hazards, and traffic information directly into a rider's line of sight, allowing them to maintain focus on the road. The system integrates with smartphones via Bluetooth, enabling users to listen to music, take calls, and program road trips using voice commands. The compact device can be installed in under five minutes on various helmet types and operates for over eight hours, providing clear visibility even in challenging weather conditions. Weighing less than 100 grams, the EyeLights product is designed for practicality and ease of use, enhancing the overall riding experience.

Seeva

Convertible Note in 2017
SEEVA Technologies, Inc. manufactures visibility systems for commercial and passenger vehicle perception. Its solution uses visibility technologies to heat and apply washer fluid to clear off snow, ice, mud, sand, dirt and bugs. The company's product includes QwikTherm system that cleans vehicle’s sensors, cameras, radar, and windshield. SEEVA Technologies, Inc. was founded in 2017 and is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Stylindex

Seed Round in 2017
Stylindex helps brands find and manage the talent they need to create photo and video content.

Svrf

Pre Seed Round in 2017
Svrf, Inc. operates a search and discovery engine for virtual reality content, headquartered in New York, New York. Founded in 2016, the company aims to enhance how individuals experience and interact with 3D content. The Svrf platform allows users to create, share, and access 3D filters across various devices without requiring prior knowledge of 3D design or game engines. Additionally, Svrf provides an API that enables developers to integrate a vast database of 3D face filters and objects into their own applications, enhancing the functionality of camera and messaging platforms. Through these offerings, Svrf strives to make 3D content more accessible and engaging for a broader audience.

Thread Genius

Seed Round in 2017
Thread Genius, Inc. is a New York-based company founded in 2015 that specializes in developing a visual search and recommendation platform geared towards fashion content. The company focuses on creating advanced algorithms for image recognition and visual search, enabling users to instantly identify fashion items and receive recommendations for similar products. As of early 2018, Thread Genius operates as a subsidiary of Sotheby's, enhancing its capabilities in the fashion industry through a combination of technology and art-related expertise.

Svrf

Angel Round in 2017
Svrf, Inc. operates a search and discovery engine for virtual reality content, headquartered in New York, New York. Founded in 2016, the company aims to enhance how individuals experience and interact with 3D content. The Svrf platform allows users to create, share, and access 3D filters across various devices without requiring prior knowledge of 3D design or game engines. Additionally, Svrf provides an API that enables developers to integrate a vast database of 3D face filters and objects into their own applications, enhancing the functionality of camera and messaging platforms. Through these offerings, Svrf strives to make 3D content more accessible and engaging for a broader audience.

Smart Vision Labs

Series A in 2017
Smart Vision Labs helps optical stores to capture sales by offering remote vision exams and eyewear prescriptions to their customers. It offers a mobile-phone based vision exam where patients can obtain an eyewear prescription in minutes without the need for a doctor on-site.

SpaceView

Seed Round in 2016
SpaceView Inc. provides design visualization solutions to help users to visualize a virtual object in a real space. It offers a mobile application and SaaS solution that enables businesses to shorten their sales cycle by enabling their sales teams to show their clients how their products work in their space; collaborate with customers; and increase opportunities for up-sell and cross-sell. The company serves digital signage, display manufacturing, visual merchandising, event management, home furnishing, retail design, interior design, medical, and real estate industries. SpaceView Inc. was founded in 2012 and is based in Portland, Oregon. As of July 12, 2017, SpaceView Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Atheer, Inc.

Curious

Seed Round in 2015
Curious is an "intelligent" offline search engine powered by SMS.

Smart Vision Labs

Series A in 2015
Smart Vision Labs helps optical stores to capture sales by offering remote vision exams and eyewear prescriptions to their customers. It offers a mobile-phone based vision exam where patients can obtain an eyewear prescription in minutes without the need for a doctor on-site.

Vieweet

Seed Round in 2014
Vieweet is a technology company that specializes in creating indoor street view kits for generating 360-degree virtual tours using mobile devices. Founded in March 2014 by Salvatore Ruocco, Domenic Versace, and David Poullier, the company focuses on the real estate sector, particularly serving estate agents and home builders. Vieweet's platform allows users to create high-quality virtual tours quickly and efficiently, incorporating features that enable privacy protections such as blurring faces and license plates. Additionally, the company's augmented reality technology enhances its 3D modeling capabilities, making these advanced tools more accessible and affordable for mainstream property professionals. Currently, Vieweet collaborates with leading brands in the industry to optimize the virtual tour creation workflow.

Smart Vision Labs

Pre Seed Round in 2013
Smart Vision Labs helps optical stores to capture sales by offering remote vision exams and eyewear prescriptions to their customers. It offers a mobile-phone based vision exam where patients can obtain an eyewear prescription in minutes without the need for a doctor on-site.

FindIt

Seed Round in 2013
FindIt is the easiest way to find emails and files across your cloud accounts using your smartphone. Search in a visual way using people, timing, and file types. Search Gmail, Google Drive, and Dropbox at the same time!

Occipital

Pre Seed Round in 2008
Occipital, Inc. develops mobile computer vision applications. It offers Structure Sensor, a 3D sensor for mobile devices that allows users to scan objects and people, map interior spaces, and capture 3D models; and 360 Panorama, an application, which allows users to capture 360-degree images. The company also offers The Structure SDK for iOS that enables developers to publish various applications; and OpenNI 2, an open source SDK that lets developers to create middleware libraries and applications for 3D sensors with Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and Android. In addition, it offers sensors and accessories online. Occipital, Inc. was founded in 2008 and is based in Boulder, Colorado.

Search to Phone

Seed Round in 2007
Search-to-Phone offers an interesting twist in the search for products and services over the phone. An improvement on the traditional 411 directory assistance, Search-to-Phone records your call like a voicemail and broadcasts your message to a number of relevant local businesses at once. You then receive a call from someone whose product or services you are likely seeking. Search-to-Phone is a [TechStars](/organization/TechStars) company.