Brian Zisk

Today we officially kick off our $2M pre seed round for Salubrum (Backed by Forum Ventures), supported by Forum Ventures, Coeus Collective Ventures, and Draper House Americas. Healthcare companies spend over $30B a year trying to acquire patients. The problem is not media. The problem is timing. Every time a patient approaches a healthcare decision a moment opens. Which doctor to see. Which procedure to pursue. Which treatment to start. For the companies involved in that decision, knowing that moment exists is incredibly valuable. Salubrum (Backed by Forum Ventures) is building the intelligence layer that maps those decision moments across the U.S. patient population. Our system aggregates large healthcare datasets covering 300M+ patient identities and uses them to predict when individuals are approaching important healthcare decisions. That signal can then be used by providers, pharma companies, payers, and other healthcare organizations trying to reach patients at the right time. Our first wedge is patient acquisition for healthcare providers and brands, but the underlying intelligence layer has much broader applications wherever patient behavior influences economic decisions. Over the past months we have quietly built the foundation. • Early pilots validating our patient intent scoring system • Distribution partnerships forming across healthcare platforms • Backed by Forum Ventures, Coeus Collective Ventures, Draper House Americas, NEXT Canada and Metta World Peace Starting tomorrow we will be meeting investors as part of the Forum Ventures showcase. If you are an investor interested in building with us get in touch. Calendly: https://lnkd.in/e5j-VvGC Investor Memo: https://lnkd.in/e5HyemAp

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Black Forest Labs raises $300M to take on Google's Nano Banana! Some of the biggest VC and AN names have invested 300 M. in German AI Startup Black Forest Labs at $3.25B valuation. The names include:   a16z Nvidia Northzone Creandum Earlybird VC BroadLight Capital General Catalyst Salesforce Ventures Anjney Midha (AMP) Temasek Bain Capital Ventures Air Street Capital Visionaries Club Canva Figma Ventures

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CoCreator Selected for the National HWP Accelerator! We’re proud to announce that CoCreator—the builders of Hakim, the world’s first AI growth partner for small business owners—has been selected to join the 2025 Hispanic Wealth Project (HWP) Accelerator, a national initiative powered by NAHREP, in partnership with KeyBank, Airbnb, and the San Diego Foundation. The HWP Accelerator is one of the most impactful programs for Latino founders in the U.S., offering mentorship, leadership development, business education, and access to strategic networks. It’s a holistic program that uplifts both the founder and the business—exactly what we believe in at CoCreator. This opportunity will help us take Hakim to the next level. 🔹 Hakim is an AI growth partner that will support entrepreneurs like a strategist, mentor, and CFO—providing real-time insights, emotional intelligence, and financial automation to help small business owners scale sustainably. Being part of the HWP Accelerator is not just an honor—it’s a milestone in our mission to democratize access to high-level mentorship and financial intelligence for underserved entrepreneurs. We’re grateful to the HWP team and partners for believing in the power of inclusive innovation. This wonderful program is starting on June 25th #HWPAccelerator #CoCreatorAI #HakimAI #LatinoFounders Hispanic Wealth Project #SmallBusinessSupport #AIForGood #LatinxTech #EmotionalIntelligence #NAHREP #KeyBank #Airbnb #SanDiegoFoundation #GrowthPartner

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Infrastructure doesn’t reach people on its own. Music artists already do. This proposal starts with real creative networks and expands them into functional ADA entry points—without forcing fans to “learn crypto” first. That’s the strategy behind Redefining Music Commerce via Fund 15 View proposal here --> https://lnkd.in/gBB6pZpn #ProjectCatalyst #Fund15 #Cardano #ADA #ArtistEconomy #RealWorldAdoption

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Solomon Labs, a New York based AI tax automation startup, secures $4.7M additional seed funding from Dunamu & Partners and Bass Ventures, reaching $14.5M total, aiming for $3M ARR by 2025. https://lnkd.in/g5eunsM2

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Trying something new this week - a studio industry roundup with my take on what matters. The studio model is no longer an experiment being run in a handful of places. It is infrastructure being built across geographies, sectors, and institutional types. 5️⃣ stories from the past seven days:  1️⃣ OSS Ventures hit a EUR 40M first close on a EUR 75M follow-on fund -- capital raised specifically to back the 30 companies their studio created since 2019. The "build then fund" lifecycle is maturing. B'More Venture Studio with a similar thesis: studio operations first, then dedicated capital to scale what's working.  2️⃣ Delta40 raised $20M from 54 investors across 13 countries to launch Africa's first integrated venture studio and fund. The LP base is almost entirely DFIs and foundations. Impact capital is discovering the studio model as a deployment vehicle, something I seeing across geographies (conversations with Michael Bob Starr and Damias McDonald this week alone) 3️⃣ Start Holdings launched Start.vc out of NYC and Barcelona after a $200M EV infrastructure exit. Another operator-turned-studio-founder. This is the pattern we see quite often in our work at 9point8 -- experienced operators like Jason Goldsmith who've built and exited deciding the studio model is how they want to build next.  4️⃣ UBC HATCH admitted 10 new deep-tech spinouts for Winter 2026 -- mostly climate tech. University venture builders are quietly becoming one of the fastest-growing segments. Follow Evan Allen and Jaimie Testai to keep track of its rapid evolution.  5️⃣ The INVEST Act is advancing through the Senate. If passed, it expands qualifying VC fund size from $10M to $50M and loosens general solicitation rules for accelerator and university events. For studio-funds -- and for folks in the The Venture Studio Forum community tracking policy -- this could be the most significant capital formation legislation since the JOBS Act. If this roundup format is useful, I'll keep it going. What other noteworthy news hit your desk this week, and what stood out to you?

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Substack Introduces Built-In Recording Studio: A Game Changer for Creators Substack's new feature allows creators to pre-record video conversations with two guests and publish seamlessly. This enhances engagement, enabling deeper connections with audiences. At ElevenX Capital, we see such innovations as critical in democratizing content creation and empowering entrepreneurs. How do you think accessible tools like this can reshape audience interactions for content creators? #investing #innovation #venturecapital #entrepreneurship

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Check out the latest funding news from across the Techstars portfolio. → Zipline (Techstars 2011), a drone delivery and logistics startup, raises more than $600M in new funding, boosting its valuation to $7.6B, as it expands commercial deployments. → Language learning startup Preply (Techstars 2015) raises $150M and becomes the 23rd known unicorn from Techstars accelerators. → Hydrosat (Techstars 2019) raises $60M in Series B funding → Tive (Techstars 2017) receives a $20M investment, valuing the shipment-tracking systems developer at slightly more than $500M. → Parambil (Techstars 2023) raises an additional $6M in seed funding ($8M to date). → Seasats (Techstars 2021) receives $24M in Department of War APFIT funding to accelerate the fielding of its autonomous surface vessels. → Hawaiian Airlines’ newly announced $600M Kahuʻewai Hawai‘i Investment Plan features a strategic investment in Ampaire (Techstars 2018) to support hybrid-electric aviation in the islands. → Fintalo (Techstars 2025) secures $500K+ in oversubscribed Pre-Seed funding. → PraxisPro (Techstars 2024) closes an oversubscribed $6M seed round. → Samara Aerospace (Techstars 2024) closes $10M seed round to help bring more stability to sats in orbit. → MyARC (Techstars 2022), a platform that enables fitness creators to train their communities at scale, secures £1.5M investment. Massive congratulations to these incredible portfolio companies!   🔗  Read more at https://lnkd.in/dxtCTvrg 

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Today, CloudX is generally available. If you’re a mobile publisher looking to modernize how monetization works, now is the time to Get Started!  Thanks to publishers like 52 Entertainment and Scopely, who are committed to driving innovation, and to our demand partners Meta, Unity, Liftoff Mobile, Magnite, InMobi, Mintegral, and Moloco. 👇More details on the GA launch, what’s available today, and how to get started in my post. https://lnkd.in/gwxYthm5 Thanks to AdExchanger and Allison Schiff for the coverage.

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AIM just announced a $50M raise to scale the world’s first embodied AI platform for earthmoving. And we’re proud to be on the cap table alongside Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, DCVC, Ironspring Ventures, HUMAN CAPITAL, Elad Gil and more. Scalable earthmoving is the backbone of modern civilization, but until now, it’s remained one of the last industries untouched by modern AI. That’s not because the opportunity wasn’t there. It’s because the technical challenge is enormous: rugged terrain, unpredictable conditions, legacy machinery, and no margin for error. AIM is solving all the above. Their platform turns existing fleets—regardless of make, model, or age—into fully autonomous machines that can operate around the clock, with no human onboard, no connectivity required, and no safety compromise. This is what happens when a team of ex-Waymo, SpaceX, Google, and Tesla engineers applies AI to real-world infrastructure: - Zero-entry worksites that eliminate the most dangerous parts of the job - 24/7 autonomous fleets operating in some of the harshest environments on Earth - Massive efficiency gains through AI-optimized site planning and execution And the traction is already real. OCP is deploying AIM in phosphate mines across Morocco. MTI is using it across their global mining operations. Even defense customers are leveraging AIM for critical site work in GPS- and comms-denied zones. We backed Adam Sadilek and the AIM team because they’re not just talking about autonomy. They’re delivering it in the field, with real customers, right now. Not to mention any team that’s not just willing but excited to spend countless nights in the complete darkness as forward operating engineers with their customers to perfect this technology has my complete support! Couldn’t be more excited for what’s ahead.

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