Duke Capital Partners

?? Exciting news from VQ Biomedical, a Duke University spinout! The company has successfully raised $5 million in funding, including a $1.65M seed round co-led by Duke Capital Partners and Wolfpack Investor Network/Harbright Ventures. This funding will accelerate the development of VQ Biomedical’s innovative intravascular oxygenation catheter, designed to deliver supplemental oxygen directly into the bloodstream—a groundbreaking alternative to traditional treatments for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). With technology originating from Duke University School of Medicine and Duke University Pratt School of Engineering, VQ is advancing the boundaries of respiratory care innovation. ?? Congratulations to CEO Galen Robertson, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tobias Straube, and the entire VQ Biomedical team. We’re proud to see these Duke innovators leading transformative change in healthcare. We look forward to their continued progress in revolutionizing critical care! Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gaQXadUH #innovation #healthcare #startup #NC #ARDS #ECMO #oxygenation #venturecapital

From early idea to $100M in ARR! Huge congratulations to the team at Otter.ai on crossing a major milestone and launching their industry-first AI Meeting Agent Suite—redefining how meetings are run in today’s AI-powered workplace. Otter.ai was co-founded by Duke University alum Yun Fu and Stanford University alum Sam Liang, and we’ve been proud to support the company from the very earliest stages—and in every funding round since. Watching this team go from early vision to category leadership has been nothing short of extraordinary. The $100M ARR mark is just the beginning—excited for what’s ahead. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/ghwczWK5 #AI #startups #venturecapital #DukeCapitalPartners #OtterAI #ARR #milestone #portfoliohighlight #meetingintelligence

We are excited to share Raleigh-Durham Startup Week, co-founded by our Venture Partner Dave Neal, as it returns for its 4th edition this April 7–11, 2025! ?? What began in 2022 with just 300 attendees has grown into a cornerstone event for the Triangle’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, with over 1,300 registrations already this year. Dave and the other founders' vision and dedication to empowering local founders have been instrumental in making this event a success. This year, Raleigh-Durham Startup Week is raising the bar with over 50 sessions of educational content for entrepreneurs across 4 days. Whether you’re a founder, builder, or supporter of the startup community, this is the place to be. ??? Register here: https://lnkd.in/erAC_nMV Let’s celebrate and elevate entrepreneurship in Raleigh-Durham! #RDSW2025 #YallTech #Entrepreneurship

Very cool to see AiFi Inc., and its Head of Sales & Partnerships, Richard Wallace featured on KTLA news for their groundbreaking work at the LA Clippers's Intuit Dome. ?? ?? Their spatial intelligence technology is revolutionizing the fan experience, slashing wait times from 30 minutes to just 2 minutes. Richard Wallace aptly noted, "AI in the physical world is something that people are not talking about enough today." We couldn't agree more. Kudos to Steve Carlin and the entire AiFi Inc. team for their growing success. Their vision has positioned AiFi Inc. as a leader in autonomous retail, enhancing convenience for millions. Check out the news here: https://lnkd.in/d2qAhNKn #Innovation #VentureCapital #DukeCapitalPartners #AI

Like Duke basketball ?? this March, DANNCE.ai is a #1 seed – in the BostInno March Madness Bracket! Boston Inno Madness is a bracket-style competition where YOU, the public, get to vote on Boston's most promising startups. We're proud to back DANNCE.ai, which uses AI and video ingestion to transform neurological assessments, enabling earlier and more accurate diagnoses for conditions like Parkinson’s disease. The platform can also evaluate the efficacy of drugs for patients with neurological disorders. Led by Duke University Pratt School of Engineering alumni CEO Rob Baldoni and COO Shereen Shermak, and co-founded by Duke University Professor Timothy Dunn, the company is also supported by Duke's Office for Translation & Commercialization, and the Gilhuly Accelerator Fund. Support DANNCE.ai by casting your vote here: https://lnkd.in/e7FURMuq Let’s help them advance and showcase their leadership in healthcare innovation. #InnoMadness #VentureCapital #BostonStartups #AI #Innovation

?? Superb AI Inc. is Changing the Game in Video Analytics! At the Smart Factory + Automation World conference in Seoul, Superb AI Inc. wowed over 5,000 attendees with *Superb Video Analytics*—their first end-user application layer! Today’s video analytics solutions often fall short: ?? Rigid, off-the-shelf AI models lead to false alarms and limited adaptability. ?? Teams spend hours manually monitoring countless camera feeds. Superb AI Inc.’s solution transforms the industry: ? Deploy custom AI in days via their MLOps platform. ? Detect unseen events with zero-shot/multi-modal vision-language AI. ? Summarize key events and enable natural language searches. ? Chat with an AI Agent for instant event retrieval. ? Integrates seamlessly with existing camera systems. We’re proud to support Superb AI Inc., co-founded by Duke University Pratt School of Engineering alum Hyun Kim, as they push boundaries in AI innovation! ?? #AI #VideoAnalytics #DukeProud #SmartFactory

AI innovator Ramin Hasani just ‘broke the brain’ of Digital Disruption’s host. Intrigued? AI is evolving fast, but are we thinking about LLMs the right way? Liquid AI’s Ramin Hasani believes there’s a fundamentally smarter way. Per host Geoff Nielson: “If DeepSeek wasn’t enough to prove it, Ramin and Liquid AI are leading the charge on a revolutionary way to build LLMs. And what they’ve come up with is REALLY exciting.” At Duke Capital Partners, we’re proud of Ramin and the Liquid team for pushing AI forward. What do you think—is this the next big leap for LLMs? Listen in and decide for yourself: ? ?? Spotify: https://lnkd.in/ggDgjMvD ? ?? YouTube: https://lnkd.in/g3T_q8-B ? ?? Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/gnnK9p9k

?? Exciting News from Panakeia! ?? We are thrilled to share that Panakeia's groundbreaking article, "A systematic pan-cancer study on deep learning-based prediction of multi-omic biomarkers from routine pathology images," has been recognized as one of the Top 25 papers published in Nature Magazine Communications Medicine in 2024! With over 7,166 downloads, this achievement places their research among the most impactful of over 260 papers published last year. The study explores the potential of deep learning for molecular profiling of multi-omic biomarkers directly from H&E-stained whole slide images, a major step forward in cancer research. Congratulations to Pahini P. and the entire Panakeia team! ?? We can’t wait to see where this remarkable work takes us next! Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gSkk_tV4? #Panakeia #DeepLearning #CancerResearch #AIinMedicine #NatureCommunications #Innovation #MedicalResearch #HealthcareTech #DCPProud

?? Big news from our portfolio company, Vestwell! Founder and CEO Aaron Schumm has been named one of the Top 25 Tech CEOs of New York for 2025 by Key Executives. ?? This recognition showcases Aaron’s visionary leadership. As a proud Duke University - The Fuqua School of Business alum, he embodies the spirit of Duke University entrepreneurship—innovation and impact. Under his guidance, Vestwell is bridging the savings gap by expanding access to financial wellness programs, empowering millions of Americans to secure their financial futures. We’re thrilled to celebrate this milestone with Aaron and the Vestwell team! ?? #DukeProud #Innovation #Leadership #FinTech #WorkplaceSavings #Innovation #KeyExecutives2025

?? Superb AI Inc. has integrated NVIDIA’s AI Blueprint for video search and summarization into its Video Analytics solution! This new capability allows users to easily search and summarize video content using natural language commands. It helps computer vision teams analyze videos faster and build smarter Vision AI solutions more efficiently. Congrats to Hyun Kim (a Duke University Pratt School of Engineering alum) and?his visionary team — including Moonsu Cha, Hyundong Lee, Jonghyuk Lee, Kye-Hyeon Kim, and Bryan Kim — for driving innovation in intelligent video analytics! At Duke Capital Partners, we are proud to see our portfolio companies collaborating with industry leaders like NVIDIA to accelerate innovation and shape the future of AI. ?? Read more here (or link in comments): https://lnkd.in/eyyRQdf7 #AI #MachineLearning #ComputerVision #NVIDIA #SuperbAI #MLOps #DukeCapitalPartners