Rick Heitzmann

From the beginning, we believed Lumana was building much more than a smarter surveillance tool. Lumana's platform reflects the next evolution in video intelligence — physical AI. This approach enables systems to go beyond basic detection capabilities to understanding context, infer intent, and deliver real-time insights that improve safety and operations at scale. Further, we decided to take the longer and more difficult direction of building a whole new generation and fully featured Video Management System (VMS). With the company’s $40M Series A, led by our friend Peter Wagner from Wing Venture Capital and our seed partners from SCAPITALVC, we’re doubling down on a platform that’s already proving its value in the real world. We are serving now close to ten thousands enterprise cameras in production! Founders like Sagi Ben Moshe bring a rare mix of vision and execution to the table. From our earliest conversations as an EIR at Norwest, it was clear that Lumana had the potential to reshape how organizations use video. Congratulations to the team on this well-deserved milestone. https://lnkd.in/gwHdaGPZ

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New Beginnings in Vertical Marketplaces SNAK Venture Partners has successfully closed an oversubscribed $50M debut fund, signaling a solid interest in vertical marketplaces. This funding, anchored by Pritzker Group, showcases increasing investor confidence in niche sectors. At ElevenX Capital, we believe this trend indicates a shift toward specialized investments, aligning with our strategy to back innovative solutions that cater to specific markets. How do you see vertical marketplaces influencing the broader investment landscape? #investing #innovation #venturecapital #entrepreneurship

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🚨NEW EPISODE: Recorded live at FUTURE TITANS 2026 - Jeff Perry of Carta sat down with the iconic Seth Levine, co-founder of Foundry. Seth has been in venture for 25 years, built Foundry from scratch as an emerging manager himself, and has backed about 50 emerging manager funds through his fund of funds. He has genuinely seen every side of this table. They went deep on building Foundry, why VCs are in the influence business, not the decision business, and why the concentration problem in venture is not only bad for LPs, but also for the innovation ecosystem overall. And why Seth's new book, Capital Evolution, is so important for the future of America. 🎧 Links to listen... Apple: https://lnkd.in/ehQUQ2EM Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eU4FExpg

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**Boston's Startup Ecosystem Awaits: Founder Summit 2026** As the startup ecosystem continues to thrive, events like the TechCrunch Founder Summit provide invaluable opportunities for founders and investors to connect. ElevenX Capital recognizes that concentrated deal flow facilitates impactful partnerships and consistent innovation in the VC landscape. How do you leverage industry events to enhance your investment strategy? #investing #innovation #venturecapital #entrepreneurship

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Great conversation with Alex Shandrovsky on the Investor Climate Podcast. We discussed the launch of Delphinus Venture Capital (€80m evergreen fund) and why we intentionally designed our fund to avoid the classic traps of traditional VC. If you are a founder, you need to understand the hidden mechanics of the VCs you are pitching. At Delphinus, we are an evergreen fund backed by four major Danish LPs. We don’t optimize for short-term markups. We are measured on one thing: Long-term net returns. This allows us to obsess over one of the key aspects in DeepTech: Gross Margins. If you are a top-tier founding team with a commercial mindset, building a DeepTech company with a real connection to the Danish ecosystem, we want to hear from you. Link in comments 👇

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Excited to announce the latest close of our early-stage venture fund. Surpassing our original $100 million target, this milestone reinforces our position as the world’s leading investor focused exclusively on SpaceTech. The fund is backed by an exceptional group of strategic partners, including the British Business Bank, National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), ARABSAT, Eutelsat, NEC Corporation and SKY Perfect JSAT (スカパーＪＳＡＴ). The fund already includes 17 pioneering companies across the US and Europe, building technologies that underpin resilience, security, sustainability, and more: 🛰️ Defence: Auriga Space, ATMOS Space Cargo, General Galactic, Privateer 🌍 Climate & Resilience: Delos Insurance Solutions, Adaptive Insurance, Renoster 🧬 Life Sciences: LambdaVision, Inc. 🔗 Next-Generation Space Infrastructure: AscendArc, Array Labs, constellr, Hubble Network, PiLogic Inc. Ubotica Technologies We are also pleased to welcome our latest investment, Mutable Tactics an exceptional deep-tech defence company based in Cambridge, UK. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eu_n_4J8 #SpaceTech #VentureCapital #DefenceTech #ClimateTech #DeepTech

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I’ve known David Meister for years and backed him at Sydecar, so I’ve seen his ability to build through complexity. Axiom Trust is taking on one of the most outdated parts of wealth infrastructure, trust administration, by pairing a regulated trust company with AI-native workflows. We're proud to invest again and congrats to the team on the launch!

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#AmTech Weekly Roundup: Apex - Spacecraft Manufacturing raised $200 million in Series C funding from Point72 Ventures, 8VC, Andreessen Horowitz, and Washington Harbour Partners LP. Apex builds satellite buses (core body with power, propulsion, and communications) that customers can customize cheaper and quicker than building bespoke buses for each mission.   Ian Cinnamon, Maximilian Benassi    Rainmaker Technology Corporation raised a $25 million Series A from Lowercarbon Capital, 1517 Fund, Long Journey, Garry Tan, and Naval Ravikant. Rainmaker uses drones for cloud-seeding. In addition to agriculture, they are thinking of it as water infrastructure: why build more pipes and canals when the clouds can do the heavy lifting?  Augustus Doricko    Jericho Security raised a $15 million Series A from Era, Lux Capital, and Gaingels. Jericho uses generative AI help corporations run cybersecurity trainings and simulations against increasingly sophisticated AI phishing attacks and social engineering.   Sage Wohns #VC #NationalInterest #USA #Startups

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The future of venture studios isn’t just about launching startups—it’s about redesigning how we build, fund, and scale impactful companies from day one. This thoughtful piece by Ryan Larcom, the Managing Partner of Alloy Partners (Formerly High Alpha Innovation), outlines where the model is headed: from cookie-cutter incubators to focused, capital-efficient studios that align deeply with market needs, deep focus, technical expertise, and business rigor. At 10XBeta, we’re living this evolution in real time. Our work is anchored in problem-led innovation, engineering-first execution, and a strong commitment to de-risking ventures early. We’re not just backing ideas—we’re building real, regulated, medtech and healthtech companies designed to survive the valley of death and scale meaningfully. Huge thanks to Sarah Adams Anderson and Francisco Gomez of Vault Fund for your belief in this model and your support as we take bold bets on the future. It was really wonderful to see my former colleagues Justin Dangel, Will Gray, CFA, TianYu (TY) Wong, and Michael Basch. #VentureStudios #MedTech #VentureCapital #HealthInnovation #FutureOfVenture #StartupEcosystem

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Hexcel Adds Independent Director in Deal With Activist Investor "Hexcel added a new independent director to its board in a move that avoids a potential proxy fight for the aerospace materials company with activist investor Vision One Fund. "As part of an agreement between the two sides, Vision One will withdraw their nominees to the board that were to be voted on at the company's annual shareholder meeting. Vision One will also support Hexcel's board nominees, and agree to certain standstill restrictions and mutual non-disparagement provisions, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. "The new director, former Kaman Chief Executive Officer Neal Keating, was appointed effective Tuesday." Keating's experience in aerospace may make him an ideal director choice. Yet from a bigger picture perspective, I wonder if this settlement is the right move for investors. More and more activist campaigns are settling rather than running the full process of a proxy fight with typically a greater number of directors nominated by the activist. Hopefully, activists are becoming like the public company boards they battle, i.e. more focused on reaching consensus than big results. #governancearbitrage #proxyfights #corporategovernance #activistinvesting #valuecreation https://lnkd.in/gazBUGFp

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🌍 Big Updates from The Venture Studio Forum (VSF): 🚀 We’ve launched our new website: Explore our refreshed home at venturestudioforum.org. 🤘 All Access, No Barriers: We’ve removed all paywalls — every Member now has full access to every benefit. This ensures our ecosystem continues to innovate and mature as a well-understood, sought-after asset class. 🎁 Member Gifts and Sponsorships Launched: We’ve rolled out a range of Sponsorship opportunities to sustain and scale this mission — including a Founding Sponsor option for our current Members (available for a limited time). Want to get involved? I’ll put all the links in the comments! #VentureStudios #Innovation #Ecosystem #VSF

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Revolutionizing Art Stewardship: Strobe Ventures portco Winston Artory Group (WAG) is using blockchain and unique data to redefine trust in a $3 trillion industry A core Strobe thesis is that specialized vertical marketplaces (particularly those underpinned by blockchain rails) will serve to 'unbundle Sothebys' and provide better user experiences for cheaper, as compared to the expensive, gated and inefficient generalized incumbents WAG is a technology platform operating at the forefront of intelligent art and collectibles stewardship. They count 30% of the world’s top billionaire art collectors as clients, and have a legacy of appraising over $100 billion in art and have tokenized another $2 billion With new collection management software and a right-to-win in the art-lending space, WAG is just getting started -- read our full piece here: https://lnkd.in/ez4r9Gxc

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We believe in more than just funding—we believe in fueling breakthroughs. In this short video, discover how ReX Capital partners with companies that fuse hardware, software, and AI to solve global challenges. These aren’t just ideas—they’re real solutions with traction, IP, and untapped potential. 📽️ What you'll see: ✔️ What makes a Hard Tech company fundable ✔️ Our role as a refueling catalyst for growth ✔️ How we bring more than capital—offering strategic expertise and meaningful connections If you’re part of a visionary team ready to scale but stuck at a capital crossroads, we might be the catalyst you're looking for. 📩 Let’s connect and build something game-changing. 📥 info@rex-cap.com

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What could the future of fund administration look like with a tech-forward approach and the application of AI? Fresh off of a $130M Series D round led by Ribbit Capital, Juniper Square CEO and Co-Founder Alex Robinson came on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share fascinating and thought-provoking perspectives on the future of fund administration and why post-investment processes need a combination of both automation and human touch. Alex and I covered both the current and future states of fund administration and how GPs can navigate a new world of tech and finance. We discussed: ➡️ Why Alex started Juniper Square and how his two entrepreneurial endeavors has informed how he’s built the firm. ➡️ The problem Alex set out to solve by building Juniper Square. ➡️ After dealing with FedEx’s to make investments, how he set out to build an investor experience that was digital. ➡️ How AI will impact fund admin. ➡️ Why every GP should have an AI agent according to Alex. ➡️ Why Juniper Square decided to move from a technology firm to add fund administration capabilities in-house. ➡️ Does AI benefit larger firms or smaller firms more? Thanks Alex Robinson for sharing your wisdom and unique perspectives on private markets, fund administration, and AI. Thanks Juniper Square for your support of Alt Goes Mainstream. https://lnkd.in/eetYyce2

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Last night, we closed Soundcore Capital Partners Fund III at $450 million — oversubscribed at the hard cap. 🚀 117 LPs. 12 countries. I am deeply grateful to every Fund III LP for the trust you placed in our team and our strategy. 11 years ago, I started Soundcore with a simple conviction: that small business owners in non‑discretionary service sectors deserved a respectful, operationally intensive partner — and that PE could be built the right way, from the ground up. There was no platform to leverage. No built‑in capital base to hire the talent this strategy demands. From the start, what existed was an unwavering conviction in the mission, a relentless work ethic, and a commitment to building this firm—step by step—into the very best in PE. Using the formula I created, we have built market‑leading platforms in highly fragmented, essential service sectors — long before it was fashionable to do so. Like any long journey, Soundcore was tested in ways I could not have anticipated. There were moments when staying the course was difficult and uncomfortable. What mattered most during those periods was resilience and integrity. Over the past several years, I spent countless hours on the road meeting with existing and prospective LPs — engaging in deep DD and thoughtful partnership discussions. The scrutiny made Soundcore better. More disciplined. More durable. At the same time, our team remained intensely focused on the portfolio and employees driving daily performance. Operationally, Fund III already reflects one of the most focused and active periods in our firm’s history: 👉 Five platforms built with over $540 million in revenue 👉 28 acquisitions completed 👉 17 acquisitions in 2025 alone — our most active year to date 👉 Meaningful expansion of our team, with deeper operational and investment expertise The LPs in Fund III were discerning and did the work. They conducted extensive DD and evaluated us based on data and firsthand reference work. We are grateful for their rigor and for their partnership mindset. We also diversified and strengthened our global LP base across public and corporate pensions, endowments, foundations, consultants, insurance companies, single family offices, fund of funds, multi-family offices, wealth managers, asset managers, and ultra-high net worth investors. We do not take that responsibility lightly. The close of Fund III is not a finish line — it is a mandate. Our focus remains singular: disciplined execution, operational value creation, and delivering performance consistent with the trust placed in us. To our LPs — thank you for your rigor, candor, and partnership. To the Soundcore team — your professionalism, resilience, and unwavering confidence in what we are building made this possible and I share this achievement with you. To my wife — thank you for the strength, patience, and support that made this journey possible. We move forward focused, proud, aligned, and accountable. Onward.

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Excited to finally share what we’ve been building over the past year. Today we’re announcing the first investment from ARKITEKT EQUITY. Over the past year, we have been closely observing the structural shifts occurring within semiconductor ecosystems. As manufacturing systems become more complex, the infrastructure enabling those systems becomes increasingly strategic. These environments demand operational clarity, coordination, and long-term alignment. ARKITEKT was built around a simple idea: durable value is created where frontier technology meets pragmatic execution. Our investment in BBTech reflects this conviction. This is just the beginning of what we aim to build at ARKITEKT EQUITY. Stay tuned! https://lnkd.in/g_pQiBZY

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Today Isembard announced a $50m Series A fundraise led by Union Square Ventures, less than a year after Notion Capital led their Seed round. 💥This is a company right at the intersection of AI & supply chain sovereignty & they’re exceeding even our most optimistic expectations. By the end of the year they will have 25 factories across the UK, US, Germany, France & Ukraine. 💥Isembard is rapidly scaling its network of AI-first factories for precision manufacturing at the same time as market demand is accelerating. Macro forces (reshoring, rising defence spend, concentration risk in Asia, and the growth of neo-primes) are structurally increasing demand for fast, local, flexible manufacturing that the current industry is unable to deliver on. 💥The innovation is in the way the company builds and franchises factories as a product with tightly integrated units of machines, software, robotics, & process intelligence that turn design files into certified components with speed & reliability. 💥Their AI software platform, MasonOS, connects all sites into a single operating system, replacing fragmented shops with standardised, high-performance industrial nodes & enabling real-time quoting, predictable delivery, & low defect rates. By owning the full production stack, Isembard delivers premium manufacturing performance with the scalability & flexibility of a software platform. 💥We are at the top of the AI hype cycle and there are understandable concerns about the ROI on the vast sums of money being invested into this new super-cycle. But, the ROI for Isembard is both clear and compelling. They will deliver components 10x faster and at 50% of the cost of current suppliers. They will also build a de-centralised, global network of factories to meet the growing demand for national or regional sovereignty. 💥This is a company with a clear vision to disrupt a massive, fragmented $1.8tn component manufacturing market. Today marks another huge stride towards that vision. And they are only just getting started. We’re thrilled to be on this journey with Alexander Fitzgerald & the team & we’re also excited to welcome Rebecca Kaden & USV into the investor base. Notion Capital Union Square Ventures Alexander Fitzgerald Rebecca Kaden Maximilian Eichler Stephen Millard Britt Mulder

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We are thrilled at Union Square Ventures to lead Isembard's $50M Series A as they build a decentralized, global network of factories and meet their mission of forging industrial acceleration. Isembard sits right at the center of 3 of the things we think are currently happening and most significant: 1/ A massively and quickly increasing demand for fast, flexible, and local manufacturing around aerospace, defense, and robotics. 2/ Increasing labor displacement fueling a resurgence in an SMB economy and individuals' desires to own their own destinies/run their own businesses. 3/ Agentic operating systems allowing for fast set ups, networked management, better results, and demand distribution. Isembard's franchise model and capital efficient approach is allowing incredibly fast scaling, with 25 factories by the end of this year across the US and Europe. Alexander Fitzgerald and his team are well on the path to delivering components 10x faster and 50% cheaper than current suppliers. If you want to jump all in with a team reforming manufacturing at a critical moment: https://lnkd.in/ekrEKzKf

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Big milestone for Ayar Labs — $500M Series E at a $3.75B valuation. This raise underscores just how critical optical I/O and co-packaged optics (CPO) have become in the AI and HPC era. As compute scales, the bottleneck is no longer just processing — it’s moving massive amounts of data efficiently, with lower power and latency. That’s where Ayar’s photonics platform is positioned to fundamentally reshape system architecture. Notably, this round combines top-tier institutional investors (Neuberger Berman, ARK, Insight, QIA, Sequoia Capital Global Equities, 1789 Capital) alongside strategic leaders like AMD, MediaTek, NVIDIA, and Alchip. That mix of financial and commercial backers signals both capital confidence and ecosystem pull. The focus now: scaling high-volume production and test capacity to accelerate deployment of their CPO solution. Moving from breakthrough technology to manufacturing scale is the real unlock. Congrats to the Ayar Labs team on continuing to push the semiconductor and photonics frontier forward. #optical #photonics #semiconductor #AI #HPC

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