– In communcation. When Angela McNeal and Mayada Gonimah led the modeling and AI/machine learning products group together at Palantir, they had a lot in common. They worked together every day, building Palantir’s first ML product suite—more than $100 million in projects.
Gonimah, originally from Egypt, wasn’t a U.S. citizen at the time. She had previously worked for Goldman Sachs and built the digital subscriptions platform for the New York Times. But when it came time for the products she built at Palantir to be used by the Department of Defense, a client, Gonimah couldn’t get the security clearance to see her work in action. “We were in this space where Maya had built this infrastructure she couldn’t see, she couldn’t access, and had to trust me to communicate back the requirements and the product vision in a very abstract sense,” McNeal remembers.
The experience led them to build a new company called Thread AI. The founders have raised a $20 million Series A round led by Greycroft, Fortune is the first to report.
Thread AI aims to build an infrastructure layer for AI, designed for all the complexities of the business world rather than only the tech industry. “We’re seeing a pattern where [workflow builders] are focused primarily for other startups—for Silicon Valley devs,” McNeal says. Its infrastructure layer is intended to communicate between legacy and new systems, across datasets, and across different permissions, roles, and responsibilities. They say the company is working with large enterprises, including Fortune 500 companies, across agriculture, manufacturing, hospitality, and financial services.
McNeal thinks that focus on the most complex business problems helps their startup stand out among AI infrastructure startups. “We were fortunate to raise relatively quickly,” she adds. “The problem that we’re trying to solve is top of mind for every company right now—how to securely and safely modernize your business with AI.”
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Today’s edition was curated by Nina Ajemian. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Plan to protect. If Mexico is unable to secure an exemption from the U.S.’s increased steel tariffs, President of Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum said she will work to protect her country’s steel industry. “It’s not an issue of revenge, or what in English they call retaliation. It’s an issue of protecting our jobs,” she said. Bloomberg
- #SkinnyTok stopped. TikTok banned #SkinnyTok, under pressure from concerned European policymakers. The social media company said it blocked search results for the hashtag due to its “unhealthy weight loss content.” Politico
- In case of emergency. The Trump administration pulled guidance mandating that hospitals perform emergency abortions when medically necessary—including hospitals in abortion-ban states. Now the policy, established under the Biden administration, will no longer be enforced. AP
- Leadership lessons. In her new memoir A Different Kind of Power, former prime minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern advocates for leading with kindness. “[I]deas of empathy and compassion and kindness in leadership were treated as if there was a naïveté there,” she says of when she left office in 2023, “and probably even more so now.” New York Times
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Kaseya, a provider of AI-powered IT management and cybersecurity tools, named Rania Succar CEO. Most recently, she was head of Intuit Mailchimp.
The Points Guy, a travel loyalty programs platform, appointed Liza Landsman as CEO. She was previously general partner at New Enterprise Associates.
Integral Ad Science, which provides advertisers and media companies with data, appointed Alpana Wegner as CFO. She was most recently CFO of Secureworks.
Cybersecurity company Cohesity named Patty Stolnacker Koch VP and head of global government affairs. Most recently, she was director, global government affairs and public policy (U.S. & Canada) at Google.
ON MY RADAR
America’s bachelorette industrial complex is out of control Business Insider
Cynthia Nixon didn’t get to run New York, but she still represents it Washington Post
Taylor Swift never rerecorded Reputation. Thank God New York Times
PARTING WORDS
“I know the type of boss that I would want to be—to be able to use power in ways where it’s graceful and impactful and it feels real.”
— Blackish actor, Little executive producer, and Genius Entertainment founder Marsai Martin on leadership
