Annie and David Lu grew up in a multi-generational manufacturing family.
“My first job was a janitor in the quality lab,” said David. “I climbed distillation towers, swept the factory floors, and worked within the factory. I learned a lot about operations, and have a deep empathy for people within this industry.”
The Lus are siblings—David is the elder, and there are three years between them—and the cofounders of H2Ok Innovations, a startup providing precision automation solutions for manufacturers.
Founded in 2021 after Annie dropped out of Harvard, H2Ok recently reached a new milestone: The company raised a $12.42 million Series A, led by Greycroft, Fortune can exclusively report. 2048 Ventures and Construct Capital also participated in the round, while Greycroft’s Jim Moffat will join the board under the terms of the deal. Currently, H2Ok—named for the original idea for the company focusing on water in industrial settings—counts AB InBev, Coca-Cola, Danone, and Unilever among its customers. H20k works in precision automation, with the goal of automatically optimizing how equipment runs through data collection, sensors, and more.
“Imagine cleaning your dishes,” said Annie. “You have your pots, pans, plates, and they all have gunk on them. You put it into your dishwasher, which is pre-programmed for ‘normal wash’ or ‘quick wash.’ It’s programmed to clean for a certain amount of time. What your dishwasher doesn’t know is how dirty your plates are. If your dishwasher knew how dirty your plates still are, it could stop cleaning in 30 minutes, instead of going for the 45 the dishwasher was programmed for, for example.”
H2Ok is looking to provide tech that allows manufacturers to be more efficient, at a time when political and economic uncertainty has roiled supply chains and longstanding manufacturing norms.
“Customers are talking about inflation, rising prices, supply chain risk, and geopolitical conflict, but they’re also thinking about how we create manufacturing in every region around the world,” said David. “How do you strengthen our most foundational sectors to make sure they’re still able to run effectively and efficiently?”
The Lus are both in their 20s, and are looking to grow with their manufacturer customers—but then again, they’ve already spent their lives in proximity to the industry. Their grandfather started a chemical manufacturing factory, a business their father also worked in.
“We grew up spending summers on the shop floor,” said Annie. “I remember David cleaning floors and washing glassware. I think those experiences really brought us this deep appreciation, passion, and obsession with manufacturing and industrials. It’s something that’s deep in our blood.”
ICYMI…Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Labs, after much horse race reporting, has officially announced its mega-seed round of $2 billion at a $12 billion valuation. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, while Nvidia, Accel, ServiceNow, Cisco, AMD, and Jane Street participated. Read Murati’s post on X here.
See you tomorrow,
Allie Garfinkle
X: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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Venture Deals
- Thinking Machines Lab, an artificial intelligence research and product company, raised $2 billion in additional funding. a16z led the round and was joined by NVIDIA, Accel, ServiceNow, CISCO, AMD, Jane Street and others.
- Unify, a San Francisco-based AI technology company focused on streamlining AI and machine learning workflow, raised $40 million in Series B funding. Battery Ventures led the round and was joined by OpenAI Startup Fund, Thrive Capital, Emergence and others.
- evolvedMD, a Scottsdale-based collaborative care management provider, raised $34 million in Series B funding. Goldman Sachs Alternatives led the round and was joined by existing investors.
- XTEND, a Tel Aviv-based robotics and autonomous systems provider powered by proprietary AI, raised $30 million in an extension of Series B funding. Aliya Capital Partners and Protego Ventures co-led the extension, and were joined by existing investors Claltech, Union-Tech Ventures and Chartered Group.
- Heron, a New York City-based startup using AI to automate workflows in business lending, equipment finance, and insurance, raised $16 million in Series A funding. Insight Partners led the round and was joined by Y Combinator, BoxGroup and Flex Capital.
- Linkby, a Sydney-based performance PR platform, raised $15 million in Series B funding. Volition Capital led the round.
- Tavrn, an San Francisco-based AI-driven legal tech platform, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Left Lane led the round and was joined by existing investors A*, Hummingbird Ventures, and Box Group.
- Felt, an Oakland-based cloud-native Geographic Information Systems (GIS) platform, raised $15 million in funding. Energize Capital led the round and was joined by BCV and Footwork.
- Heka, a New York City-based startup building a new category of identity intelligence for financial institutions, raised $14 million in Series A funding. Windare Ventures led the round and was joined by Barclays, Cornèr Banca, and others.
- SuperAnnotate, a San Francisco-based AI data platform, raised $13.5 million in additional Series B funding. Dell Technologies Capital led the round.
- Dakota, a crypto-integrated business banking platform, raised $12.5 million in Series A funding. CoinFund led the round and was joined by 6th Man Ventures and Triton Ventures.
- ParadeDB, a New York City-based search and analytics program for Postgres, raised $12 million in Series A funding. Craft Ventures led the round and was joined by Y Combinator, General Catalyst, Susa Ventures, and others.
- Rwazi, an Los Angeles-based AI platform for consumer data, raised $12 million in Series A funding. Bonfire Ventures led the round and was joined by Santa Barbara Venture Partners, Newfund, and Alumni Ventures.
- Function, a BTC yield asset provider, raised $10 million in seed funding. Galaxy Digital, Mantle, and Antalpha joined the round.
- Callidus Legal AI, a McKinney, Texas-based AI legal platform, raised $10 million in funding. Cervin Ventures led the round and was joined by AI Fund, Myriad Venture Partners, Tandem Ventures, and others.
- Little Sesame, a Washington, D.C.-based hummus brand, raised $8.5 million in Series A funding. InvestEco Capital led the round and was joined by Watchfire Ventures, Santatera Capital, Beliade Consumer Partners, and others.
- Monumental Labs, a New York City-based AI-powered architecture and sculpture design firm, raised $8 million in seed funding. Seven Seven Six led the round and was joined by Mythos Ventures, Gravity Capital, Path Ventures, and more.
- Auriga Space, an Orange County-based aerospace technology company, raised $6 million in funding. OTB Ventures led the round and were joined by US AFWERX and SpaceWERX.
- Covenant, a New York City-based AI law firm built for private market investors, raised $4 million in seed funding. Flybridge Capital led the round.
Private Equity
- Dessert Holdings, backed by Bain Capital, acquired Willamette Valley Pie Company, a Silverton, Oregon-based pie and dessert company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- E.GRUPPE, backed by Gimv, acquired LET Gruppe, an Ulm, Germany-based electrical engineering solutions company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Precision Aviation Group, backed by GenNx360 Capital Partners, acquired Turner Aviation, a Glasgow-based aviation maintenance, repair, and overhaul services provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Wilshire Advisors acquired ParkLexington Advisors, a Conshohocken, Pennsylvania-based data and analytics firm focused on improving fund and investment firm operations, profitability, and performance. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Advantive, backed by TA Associates and ST6, acquired PINpoint, a Burlington, Ontario-based manufacturing execution system. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Trinity Hunt Partners acquired a majority stake in DACS Asphalt & Concrete, a Commerce City, Colorado-based commercial paving services provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Argentum acquired a minority stake in CloudCover, an Irvine, Calif.-based provider of third-party maintenance (TPM) and IT lifecycle management solutions. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Exits
- BlueOptima agreed to acquire multiple DevOps products from Cirata. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Northleaf Capital Partners and AVALT agreed to acquire WASH, a Torrance, California-based provider of route-based laundry services, from EQT. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- The Sterling Group agreed to acquire Precision Concepts International, a Huntersville, North Carolina-based packaging solutions provider, from ONCAP. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Lubrication Engineers, backed by Aurora Capital Partners, acquired Southwestern Petroleum Lubricants, a Forth Worth-based developer and manufacturer of industrial greases and lubricating oils, from an affiliate of DalFort Capital Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Other
- Cognition agreed to acquire Windsurf, a Mountain View-based AI-powered code editor. Financial terms were not disclosed.
FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS
- Verified Capital, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm, raised $175 million for its first fund focused on AI, SaaS, infrastructure, marketplaces, and payments.
- Mantis, a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm, raised $100 million for its third fund focused on cybersecurity, AI, frontier tech, data and cloud infrastructure, and healthtech.
