August 2024 Newsletter
The latest from Garuda Ventures, new investments, our new podcast Brick by Brick, news from our portfolio, and a few tidbits!
Welcome to the Garuda Ventures newsletter, where we share the latest from us, news from our portfolio, new investments, and a few tidbits.
New Investments: We partnered with two founding teams this past quarter (each of them is still unannounced, so you’ll just have to wait to hear more!)
💰 B2B2C alts-as-a-service infrastructure that allows any platform to embed private investments natively into its own customer experience quickly and easily
🔄 The AI discovery and promoted search platform for e-commerce
Announcing our podcast, Brick by Brick: Over the last 15+ years we have been fortunate to build a large network of seasoned founders, operators, and investors, each with unique insights, learnings, and untold stories from the trenches. We thought we would put that network to work and launched our podcast, Brick by Brick, where we learn how successful startups were really built directly from the people who built them! We’ve released six episodes so far, including with Aston Motes, Employee #1 at Dropbox, Ben Sabrin, an early sales leader at JBoss, MongoDB, Okta, and Weaviate, and Jared Fliesler, an early leader at Square. If you’re startup curious, running an early stage company yourself, or considering joining a company as an early employee, this pod’s for you! You can find Brick by Brick on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube. Check it out, subscribe, let us know what you think, and send us an email if you have suggestions for great guests!
Garuda on the road: We were on the road again in Q2, with a chance to meet with the community in LA, Boston, and Missouri. Special thanks to all of you who came out to see us. We're incredibly grateful for our growing Garuda community!
Portfolio News
Airbase, the corporate spend management platform, earned the top spot in G2’s Fall Report on mid-market AP Automation, including the #1 position on the Usability index. Users said they would be likely to recommend Airbase at a rate of 95%
Amperon, the leading provider of AI-powered electricity forecasting and analytics services, announced its strategic expansion into the European power markets. Leveraging AI and machine learning technologies, Amperon will now offer its detailed and highly accurate forecasts and services to power market participants in Europe, including renewable energy producers, financial institutions, and utilities
APMC, a video streaming infrastructure platform, announced a 7-year agreement with the Dallas Stars NHL team to launch a free, ad-supported sports streaming service Victory+ powered by APMC. This is a first-of-its-kind arrangement that promises to revolutionize how live sports are viewed and monetized
FlexPoint, the leading provider of automated billing and payment solutions for managed service providers (MSPs), announced a strategic partnership with Pax8, the leading cloud commerce marketplace. The collaboration officially launches FlexPoint’s comprehensive financial platform in the Pax8 Marketplace
Rebel Space, building AI-driven solutions to detect, correct, and protect air & space operations, presented at the 39th annual Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, and demonstrated their cyber risk management framework for space operations, threat indications and warnings using AI/ML models, and autonomous response with SpaceWERX
Hiring Across the Portfolio
The Garuda Ventures portfolio is always hiring! If you’re in the market for an exciting new role at an early-stage business, head to jobs.garuda.vc or click the button below to discover opportunities across our network of companies.
Garuda’s Bookshelf
In a world of bite-sized, easily consumable content, we love asking and getting the question, “Have you read any good books lately?” In this month’s bookshelf:
Non-fiction: Working by Robert Caro
Working by Robert Caro provides a window into the life of an indomitable literary figure. His remarkable work documenting political power, first with Robert Moses and then LBJ, are must-reads (granted, it will take you some time to get through them!) He took a break from his 5th LBJ installment to write Working, a collection of stories and memories on his creative and literary process. Be it a Smith Corona typewriter or Chopin, thick pencils or a classic Buick, for the lionized biographer of LBJ, everything has a purpose (and a story). In Working, like with everything he writes, Caro draws you in and doesn’t let go until long after the last page.
Fiction: Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan is a story about a young slave in Barbados, Wash, who forms an unlikely friendship with Christopher (Titch), the brother of his master. Through a topsy-turvy story that blends science, travel, and the political climate of the day, Edugyan creates an exceptional meditation on the meaning of freedom, and how we are as responsible for freeing ourselves as those who have kept us captive.
Garuda Ventures is a B2B-focused, pre-seed and seed-stage venture firm. Subscribe below to get the latest from us, and visit garuda.vc to learn more.