Yan-David Erlich is the rare person who I feel comfortable talking to about meditation. I tell Erlich, who I first met last year, that I’m a meditator who constantly fails.
“Failing to meditate is meditation,” Erlich laughs. “It’s not about pushing unproductive thoughts away, though that’s part of it. The biggest thing to recognize is this: You go through life thinking you know your own thoughts, and that they’re yours. But then you try to sit for ten seconds and not think—and you find out that you can’t. So are they really your thoughts?”
It’s an admittedly odd conversation to have with a C-suite executive, but it ultimately tracks. Erlich—who goes by Yanda and, until recently, was CRO and COO at AI unicorn Weights & Biases—has found overlap between AI and meditation. For one, he’s found that there are a lot of AI-focused entrepreneurs, operators, and researchers who meditate. It makes a certain sense, because the experience of observing one’s own consciousness can end up being a valuable “data point” in understanding AI.
“The minute you’re thinking about how to build artificial brains and artificial intelligence, you pretty quickly get to: How does human consciousness and intelligence work? Why do we perceive the world the way we do?” Erlich told Fortune.
In a world so loud and bright, meditation helps create space. Erlich sees his own meditation practice as helping him create an environment in his own mind where the most compelling ideas have the space to emerge. He expects this will be especially important as he’s looking to spend more time with people “living on the edge” of AI development.
Erlich and I are talking because he’s at a crossroads. He spent more than five years at Weights & Biases (backers include Insight Partners, Bloomberg Beta, and Coatue). Erlich had joined after leading Coatue’s Series A investment in the company, and before Coatue, he was a multi-time founder and solo GP.
Erlich is now going back to investing, joining B Capital as a general partner to help lead the firm’s AI investments, the firm exclusively tells Fortune. B Capital’s AI investments currently include Writer and Poolside. The firm has more than $7 billion in AUM, and it was founded in 2015 by Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin, Raj Ganguly (formerly of Bain Capital), and Howard Morgan, who previously cofounded First Round Capital.
Erlich’s investing plans are geography-agnostic (B Capital invests globally, including in India) and he’s targeting two key areas. First, he’s interested in B2B startups developing “AI coworkers”—tools and infrastructure that help AI collaborate with humans in fields like legal, finance, and customer service. As he imagines, “we’re going to move from a world where we have AI tools and AI agents, to full-scale AI coworkers.” Erlich’s also pursuing consumer and prosumer startups creating “AI staff,” making personal assistants for tasks like cooking, health care, coaching, and investments accessible to the general public.
To this end, Erlich shares my fascination with the ways in which AI may (or may not) parallel the Industrial Revolution. Despite the overall narrative that AI is moving fast, I do think that societal change will be sweeping but ultimately gradual. Erlich believes AI has the potential to dramatically cut the costs of energy and intelligence, making more accessible the building blocks of producing goods and services. This is, in part, where he sees the Industrial Revolution parallel.
“Most significant improvements in human quality of life have come through the reduction of the cost of the goods that we need to have happy lives,” said Erlich, adding that the emergence of mass production during the Industrial Revolution meant that many more people “could have access to the goods and services that used to be available only to the wealthy.”
How exactly this phenomenon plays out with AI is part of the mystery. In its way that does bring us back to meditation—that it can open your mind not only to what we know, but all that we don’t. When it comes to AI, that will be necessary in the coming weeks, months, and years.
“I actually think if we look over a 10-, 20-, or 50-year horizon, society is going to be reconstructed,” he said. “The economy is going to get reconstructed. The types of jobs we’re doing today are going to seem ridiculous. Fifty years from now, there’s going to be totally new jobs that we can’t even fathom.”
See you tomorrow,
Allie Garfinkle
X: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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VENTURE DEALS
- StackBlitz, a San Francisco-based developer tool maker, raised $83.5 million in Series B funding. Emergence Capital and GV led the round and were joined by Madrona Venture Group, Mantis VC, and Conviction.
- Lindus Health, a New York City-based clinical trial optimization company, raised $55 million in Series B funding. Balderton Capital led the round and was joined by Visionaries Club and existing investors Creandum, Firstminute, and Seedcamp.
- Clay, a New York City-based AI-filtered data provider for go-to-market teams, raised $40 million in pre-emptive Series B expansion funding. Meritech Capital led the round and was joined by Sequoia Capital, First Round Capital, Box Group, and Boldstart Ventures.
- Music AI, a Salt Lake City-based AI-powered music and audio technology developer, raised $40 million in Series A funding. Connect Ventures and monashees led the round and were joined by Kickstart, Samsung Next, Toba Capital, and others.
- Mitiga, a New York City-based Cloud and SaaS threat detection, investigation, and response solutions provider, raised $30 million in Series B funding. SYN Ventures led the round and was joined by existing investors including ClearSky, Atlantic Bridge, Flint Capital, and others.
- Baton, a New York City-based small and medium-sized business acquisitions marketplace, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Obvious Ventures led the round and was joined by Burst Capital, FJ Labs, Fluent Ventures, 75 & Sunny, and existing investors Divergent Capital, Bloomberg Beta, and Zeno Ventures.
- Grepr, a San Francisco-based observability technology developer, raised $9 million in seed funding. A16z led the round and was joined by boldstart, E14 Fund, Prime Set, and D'Arcy Coolican.
- Aslan, a London-based employee benefits platform, raised $5 million in seed funding. Notion Capital led the round and was joined by Redstone and angel investors.
- Degree Analytics, an Austin-based data analytics and solutions provider for higher education institutes, raised $5 million in funding from LiveOak Ventures.
- ZuriQ, a Zurich-based quantum computer scaling technology developer, raised $4.2 million in funding. Founderful led the round and was joined by SquareOne, First Momentum Ventures, OnSight Ventures, and QAI Ventures.
- SquarePeg, a Salt Lake City-based recruitment platform, raised $3.5 million in seed funding. Next Frontier Capital led the round and was joined by Acadian Ventures, Bread & Butter Ventures, and Silicon Road Ventures.
- Riley AI, a San Francisco-based AI-powered product discovery agent, raised $3 million in seed funding. Vertex Ventures US led the round and was joined by NextView Ventures, Hyphen Capital, and angel investors.
- Pipeshift, a San Francisco-based cross-infrastructure AI workload orchestration platform, raised $2.5 million in seed funding. Y Combinator and SenseAI Ventures led the round and were joined by Arka Venture Labs, Good News Ventures, Nivesha Ventures, angel investors, and others.
- Beanstack, an Arlington, Va.-based reading challenges company for libraries and schools, raised $1.5 million in funding. Riverside Acceleration Capital and Evoce Capital led the round and were joined by Mark Cuban, Kapor Capital, Militello Capital, and others.
- Banyu, a Jakarta, Indonesia-based technology developer for the seaweed industry, raised $1.3 million in seed funding from Intudo.
- Favorited, a Los Angeles-based live-streaming platform, raised $1.3 million in pre-seed funding from a16z Speedrun, Soma Capital, HF0, and angel investors.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners acquired Smartsheet, a Bellevue, Wash.-based work management platform, for approximately $8.4 billion in cash.
- AXA IM Prime and Patria Investments agreed to each acquire an approximately 15% stake in Latour Capital, a Paris-based private equity firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- BlueMatrix, backed by Thoma Bravo, acquired Street Context, a Toronto-based email improvement solutions provider for the capital markets. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Clearview Capital recapitalized Loss Prevention Services, a Natchez, Miss.-based asset recovery services provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Firmament acquired a majority stake in BP Environmental Services, a Chalfont, Pa.-based waste services provider. Firmament and Expedition Capital Partners recapitalized the company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Latticework Capital Management and Edgehill Management acquired a majority stake in Life Science Connect, a Pittsburgh-based life science communities network. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Revelation Pharma, backed by Plexus Capital, Osceola Capital Management, and Hall Capital Holdings, acquired Cascade Specialty Pharmacy, a Poulsbo, Wash.-based compounding pharmacy. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- SportPet Designs, a portfolio company of Topspin Consumer Partners, acquired Mammoth Pet Products, a Mammoth Lakes, Calif.-based pet toys manufacturer. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- The Exigent Group, a portfolio company of Huron Capital, and Smith-Boughan Mechanical acquired Premier Mechanical, a Lima, Ohio-based HVAC and mechanical services provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
OTHER
- Boomerang acquired GQueues, a Boulder-based task manager for Google Workspace. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Cre8tive Technology and Design acquired EpiCenter ERP, a San Diego-based manufacturing technology solutions provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Zencity acquired Commonplace, a Southwark, England-based citizen engagement platform in the U.K. Financial terms were not disclosed.
IPOS
- Beta Bionics, an Irvine, Calif.-based automated insulin delivery device developer, plans to raise $120 million in an offering of 7.5 million shares priced between $14 and $16 on the Nasdaq. The company posted $53 million in sales for the year ending Sept. 30, 2024. Sands Capital, Farallon Capital Management, Eventide Asset Management, RTW Investments, Soleus Capital, Omega Fund, and Wellington Management back the company.
- Karman Holdings, a Huntington Beach, Calif.-based defense and space systems developer, filed to go public on the NYSE. The company posted $331 million in revenue for the year ending Sept. 30, 2024. Trive Capital and Norman Carl Christensen back the company.
PEOPLE
- AVP, a Paris-based venture capital firm, added Alexander Pires as a vice president on its growth fund. Previously, he was at BDT & MSD Partners.
- Elsewhere Partners, an Austin-based private equity firm, promoted Sloane Child and Nick Stoffregen to partner and added Jamol Williams as a senior associate. Previously, Williams was at Silversmith.
- Greylock, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based venture capital firm, added Mor Chen as a partner. Previously, she was at Accel.
- Neo, a San Francisco-based accelerator and venture capital firm, added Connor Ling as an investor. Previously, he was at Goldman Sachs.
- VMG Partners, a San Francisco-based investment firm, promoted Sam Shapiro to partner and Eliza Becker to Principal.
- Wonder Ventures, a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm, added Jiyoung Jeong as an investment analyst. Previously, she was at Wellspring Consulting.