Krew Capital

I am excited to announce an additional $8.5M investment into Bandana (Bandana.com), led by General Catalyst, with follow-on investments from Craft Ventures and Triple Impact Capital. The promise of America ???? has always been one of opportunity. From the early settlers seeking new lives to immigrants arriving with dreams of a better future and the rise of millions out of poverty during the Industrial Revolution, America's history is rich with stories of hope and progress. The Civil Rights Movement further solidified this promise, ensuring that opportunities were available to all, regardless of race or background. However, today, many still find the path to prosperity challenging, with barriers of inequity and privilege seeming more formidable than ever. At Bandana, we believe that the American Dream — the idea that hard work leads to success — should be within everyone's reach. Our mission is to empower hourly and entry-level workers through transparency and trust, by building tools that improve their livelihoods. By leveling the playing field with transparent information and providing reliable support, we aim to help everyday Americans achieve their dreams and create brighter futures for themselves and their families. Since January 2024, we've helped over 150,000 New Yorkers find better jobs, proving that our efforts are just the beginning of what we can accomplish together. We will continue to accelerate our growth and support even more Americans. Our focus remains on building the best platform for finding better jobs with comprehensive benefits and maximum transparency while also expanding into New Jersey, the rest of New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. This is just the first step in our broader vision to improve livelihoods and reignite the belief in the American Dream. A special shout out to my co-founders Caleb Lee and Larry Z. and to our incredible team here Vicky Xu, Elana Shen, Yong Li (Emily) Dich, Paulo Makalinao, Adrian Abeijon, Brian Qian, and Rudy Ramnath. Thank you to the investors who have believed in us from day one and continue to double down, specifically Niko Bonatsos, Max Rimpel, Lainy Painter Singh, Bennett Thomas, and Justin Smithline. Read more - https://lnkd.in/e7n3pjnM Techcrunch - https://lnkd.in/engU9bTD For the People, Timothy Makalinao

We are delighted to announce that Weavel (YC S24), revolutionizing analytics for conversational AI products, has been accepted into the Y Combinator S24 batch! ?? Weavel focuses on helping AI product teams uncover valuable insights based on users' interactions in multi-turn conversations. After building dozens of AI products in the past year, the team (Andrew Chung, Jun Park, Hyun Jie Jung) sought to address the challenges they faced themselves and are deeply passionate about helping fellow builders 10x+ their growth. Having backed Weavel as their earliest investor, we at Krew Capital are honored to support such an amazing team on their incredible journey and can't wait to see what they will achieve next Congratulations to the entire Weavel (YC S24) team! If you are building a conversational AI product, please check out their product and reach out to Andrew to learn more :) (For our Korean audience) check out the article below, covering Weavel's exciting news for more details: https://lnkd.in/gWjEEGbJ

We are thrilled to announce that Endo Health has raised a follow-on investment from A16Z GAMES SPEEDRUN alongside renowned angels such as Anne Wojcicki (the founder of 23andMe)! Under the leadership of founder Brian Yun, MD, Endo Health is pioneering at the intersection of gaming and healthcare. Their innovative approach to solving the patient adherence problem includes a gamified app that is designed to support its users in leading healthier lives by providing an engaging and motivating experience. At Krew Capital, we have had the privilege of working closely with Brian since February this year. Witnessing the team's dedication and progress has been inspiring, and we are excited about the potential impact of their product on millions of lives. Congratulations to Brian and the entire Endo Health team (Il Han Ryu, Chanwoo Park)! We are honored to be part of your journey in advancing human lifespan by one year. (For our Korean audience) check out the article below, covering Endo Health's fundraising news for more information https://lnkd.in/eH-hbbst

I'm thrilled to announce our latest integration with Botpress! Weavel, the go-to product analytics software for conversational AI, now seamlessly integrates with Botpress, the leading low-code AI agent builder platform with over 100k users. This integration empowers Botpress users with valuable insights into customer interactions through Weavel's real-time reports on topic trends, user intent journeys, sentiment analysis, and more. Yesterday, we launched v2.0.1 of our integration, which now enables users to log and track events such as button clicks, NPS feedback, and filter conversations based on these events within Weavel. A huge shoutout to Jun Park and Hyun Jie Jung for their outstanding work in making this possible!

It was an honor to host a Krew Invitational with Jaden Oh, co-founder of CLO Virtual Fashion Inc. alongside early-stage founders in our Krew Capital family that are building in the spatial computing and tangent B2B spaces! From our favorite Disney/Marvel movies and games to the most coveted clothing brands, Jaden and his team have revolutionized how clothes are made in the digital world. A belated congrats on Marvelous Designer winning the Tech Oscar at the 2024 Academy Awards ?? Among many key takeaways, the customer-centric (almost obsessive) product methodology that Jaden champions was truly inspiring. He drew compelling parallels between the 'lean startup' methodology and Newton's approach to finding global maxima, emphasizing the importance of guiding product strategy through iterative experiments and optimizing time/resources with the singular goal of driving user delight. On behalf of all the participants, thank you, Jaden, for your time and for sharing your wisdom ??

We could not be more excited to announce our Pre-seed investment in Halfmore, Inc in a round led by Draper Associates! Halfmore, Inc is a fintech startup on a mission to enable parents to ensure their children's financial prosperity. We at Krew Capital are incredibly grateful for Isaac Lee and his cofounders for giving us the chance to partner with the team as their earliest backers. Isaac not only possesses a sharp mind but also has a huge heart as a thoughtful leader - it's been a privilege for us to work alongside him and his incredible cofounders (Jaebum Lee & Grace Lee). (For our Korean audience) check out the article below, covering Halfmore's fundraising news for more information! https://lnkd.in/gYZ8NfdB

Isn't it funny how enthusiastically I participated in the demo? XD Recording demos always so exciting! This time we did a multi-player game demo with MOVIN Inc. TRACIN'. MOVIN TRACIN' is a real-time & free-body motion capture that can be captured with only one LiDAR sensor and a laptop. Keep an eye on the 35-second mark as one of our founders jump into the scene with a simple A-pose auto calibration. And don't blink or you might miss our super extreme motions! Discover more about MOVIN Inc. & MOVIN TRACIN' - https://www.movin3d.com/

Introducing OptimizerAI 1.0 - the best text-to-sound effect model. Bring your games, videos, movies, and animations to life with AI sound effects! Available on web and Discord. Get started now at https://optimizerai.xyz/

Just went through A16Z GAMES SPEEDRUN demo day!?? Unforgettable experience building for 10weeks and presenting in front of 400+ investors. Thanks OptimizerAI team Young Kim Simon Han Hojin KIM for all the hard work and the SPEEDRUN team Andrew Chen Jonathan Lai Andrew Lee Troy Kirwin Joshua Lu Robin Guo Jack Soslow Samira Behrouzan for all the help for the last couple months??

This is Bandana (found on Bandana.co). As we build for tens of millions of working-class Americans (starting in New York City), the most pertinent lesson has been the need to build TRUST. Every step we take in building Bandana asks the question, “Will a user trust this?” For many people, trust in technology isn’t a given. It must be earned.