Oval Park Capital

The recent news about DeepSeek was like tossing a wet blanket on a roaring fire—it couldn’t extinguish the red-hot excitement investors have for AI! The flames CONTINUE to burn and I believe the next quarter-billion dollars of investment in AI companies is imminent. I don’t have a crystal ball, but I do have twenty years of experience advising executives in the semiconductor industry which has sharpened my senses about market signals and my “gut feel” about the people that make startups successful and from what I can tell, these four AI companies are on the verge of their next funding milestones: ??d-Matrix - Sid and Sudeep bet YEARS ago that DIMC would transform AI in the “Age of Inference”, and that time is now! They’ve been on a tear since Series B, hiring outstanding talent and bringing their flagship product, Corsair, to life. I think investors will reward their vision and leadership with another round of funding soon to help them go to HVM. ??MemryX Inc. - They’re solving the pains most engineers and developers face with truly easy-to-deploy SW paired with their low-power silicon for edge AI. They’re also adding partners at an increasing rate and CEO Keith Kressin just brought in the veteran sales leadership of Chris Stevens so I think they’re approaching the tipping point of momentum where fresh funding will help them scale production and deployment. ??Lemurian Labs - Building a platform that makes HW/SW integration seamless and hardware-agnostic is a powerful counterpoint to the question of, “Which AI HW companies will win?” Rather than picking individual winners, smart investors will focus on building the market itself—a vision that Jay Dawani championed at last year’s AI Hardware Summit– and everyone wins when they bet on Jay. ??Neurophos - Iterative changes never shake the world like the transformative ones, and Neurophos is aiming to revolutionize compute with their photonics-based processor. CEO Patrick Bowen has been working just as hard on building his team as developing their device, and recent technical hires from Meta and Lightmatter as well as an ex-AMD product leader hint at growing momentum which will surely catch attention because you don’t just invest in technology, you invest in PEOPLE. These companies are tackling some of AI’s biggest challenges—from power consumption to ease of deployment—all of which will help make AI more accessible to all. But beyond the technological impact, their growth will create more opportunities for brilliant engineers and leaders eager to apply their skills in organizations that are truly making an impact. For top engineers/leaders, joining a startup isn’t just a career move or a quick path to wealth (BELIEVE me, there are easier ways to get rich!). It’s about building something groundbreaking–which is grueling, exhausting, exhilarating and rewarding simultaneously. If you’re a builder, keep an eye on these companies. #semiconductorindustry #artificialintelligence #startups

The State of Venture in North Carolina: Challenges & Opportunities We just released our 2024?NC Venture Report, which provides an aggregate overview of North Carolina's evolving startup and investment landscape. To better understand the trends, opportunities, and roadblocks shaping our ecosystem, we gathered insights from more than a dozen investors, focused on different types of innovation. Key Takeaways While North Carolina’s venture ecosystem is growing steadily, it faces critical challenges: ?? Mid-stage capital gaps – Startups struggle to secure follow-on funding beyond seed/early-stage rounds. ?? University commercialization – More effective pathways are needed to bring cutting-edge research to market. ?? Limited corporate HQ engagement – More local corporate involvement could fuel innovation and investment. ?? Out-of-state investor reluctance – Despite strong fundamentals, some national investors remain hesitant. ?? Cultural barriers to biotech entrepreneurship – Founders in life sciences face unique hurdles in launching and scaling. A Strong Foundation for Growth Despite these challenges, positive exit activity, stable real estate, strong early-stage investing, and rising corporate venture interest provide reasons for optimism. NC is well-positioned for long-term venture success. Get the Full Report ?? Download the full report here: https://lnkd.in/ewkWaNgQ Thanks to Travis Milks, Justin W., Elizabeth Kelly, Timothy McLoughlin, Mariliis Holm, Mahati Sridhar, Kelly Rowell, Blair Willette, PhD, Kseniya Simpson, PhD, Teilo S. Megann Watters, Alex Gray, Blake Stevens, Karl Rectanus, Scott Uknes, for the great discussions, and the CED (Center for Entrepreneurial Development) team; Yash M., Hunter Young, Katelin Wheeler and Elaina Bade for the outstanding analysis, report and dinner Want to connect with these investors and 150+ more? Join us at Venture Connect, where top founders, investors, and innovators unite to shape the future. ?? Registerhttps://lnkd.in/eKjb5R9N North Carolina’s venture ecosystem is evolving—let’s continue the conversation and drive growth together. ?? #VentureCapital #Startups #Entrepreneurship #NCtech #Innovation #biotech #CEDNC #VentureConnect

Axil Health is providing unique value to healthcare providers and their patients, coordinating patient care *between* visits. Axil Health enables more comprehensive and proactive patient care by monitoring vital information in real-time, managing/adjusting medications, engaging directly with patients, and delivering data, updates, and alerts back to healthcare providers. If you fall into either of the categories below, I encourage you to reach out to learn more about Axil Health: -A healthcare provider that wants to improve patient outcomes and generate additional practice revenue by adding turnkey patient care solutions between visits, without creating additional burden for existing staff -A pharmacist or medical assistant that wants to work in an entrepreneurial environment (with equity upside) and directly contribute to improved patient population health #HealthcareInnovation #PatientCare #ProactiveCare #RemotePatientMonitoring #ValueBasedCare #HealthTech #PopulationHealth #HealthcareProviders #CareCoordination #PatientEngagement #PracticeRevenue #PharmacistJobs #MedicalAssistants #Entrepreneurship cc: Ritesh Patel, CPP, CDCES, Vish Patel Dwight Hallman Andrew Blum, PharmD, CPP, CDCES, BC-ADM Ryan M. Jacobs Eli Randel Evan Shear

Natrx is honored to be part of REEFrame, a groundbreaking, $9M coral restoration project off Waikīkī Beach funded by the NOAA Fisheries Our nature-based coastal resilience technology is playing a key role in building permanent coral nurseries—helping to restore marine ecosystems and protect this culturally significant shoreline. Using our DryForming? technology, we’re creating habitat-specific reef structures designed to support coral growth and marine biodiversity. We’re grateful to work alongside Conservation International, University of Hawaii at Manoa, the Hawai‘i DLNR Division of Aquatic Resources, Oceanit, ClimbHI, and NOAA: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administrationto make this vision a reality. What makes this project truly special is its deep cultural and environmental significance. In Hawaii, the ocean isn’t just a resource—it’s a way of life. We are grateful to contribute to an effort that respects and integrates Indigenous knowledge, traditional stewardship, and modern engineering to protect these invaluable reefs. A huge thank you to the people of Hawaii for welcoming us into this important work. Stay tuned as we share more! #REEFrame #CoralRestoration #CoastalResilience #Natrx #naturebased

Oh, the drama.. I’m going to start referring to this moment as the “great misinterpretation”. There’s a flawed narrative going around that DeepSeek’s models prove AI compute demand is shrinking, training is now “cheap,” and billion-dollar AI companies are overfunded. Some are even shorting NVIDIA and AMD, convinced compute requirements for AI workloads are declining. This is completely false. DeepSeek is a big step for open-source AI, but it’s still lower quality than the best proprietary models. It narrows the gap, but it doesn’t erase it. What it really proves is that AI scaling is evolving, post-training is the new battleground, and compute demand isn’t going anywhere. ?? Open-source is advancing fast, but it’s still standing on hundreds of millions in prior investment from U.S. labs. ?? This isn’t the end of scaling—it’s shifting from brute-force to smarter architectures and post-training efficiency. ?? DeepSeek squeezed insane performance out of H800s with aggressive PTX-level optimizations, FP8 training, and hybrid parallelism. ?? Reinforcement Learning (RL) isn’t just for alignment anymore—it’s making AI think. DeepSeek used pure RL (PPO, GRPO) to teach their models reasoning—without MCTS, without complex planning heuristics. This moves AI from next-token prediction to structured, step-by-step problem-solving. ?? Big models still matter—they’re just becoming teachers. Smaller, more specialized models will scale AI more efficiently, but frontier models still drive the breakthroughs. ?? Compute demand isn’t shrinking—it’s evolving. AI infrastructure investment remains critical, inference workloads are rising, and post-training techniques are consuming more compute, not less. ?? Smarter software is going to drive the new scaling frontier. DeepSeek’s real wins weren’t just hardware—they came from aggressive software optimization: -> PTX-level programming to max out GPU efficiency. -> FP8 precision training to cut memory usage. -> Hybrid parallelism & scheduling to keep every processor busy. Manual tuning like this is impressive engineering, but it’s not scalable for the whole industry. This is exactly why we at Lemurian Labs are building a hardware-agnostic AI compute stack—because companies can’t afford to hire teams of engineers just to squeeze out performance manually. We provide: -> Up to 10X performance gains, automated (training and inference). -> Up to 80% lower infrastructure costs, no CUDA hacking required. -> Plug-and-play optimization for any hardware, at any scale. DeepSeek doesn't signal the end of AI scaling—it’s proof that we’re entering a new phase of it. The next wave of AI won’t just be bigger models, but smarter feedback loops, better reasoning, and inference that continuously improves models over time. Compute maximalism isn’t over—it’s just evolving. DeepSeek is going to serve as an accelerant, pulling in timelines. Expect more breakthroughs faster from all the leading labs now. Hold on to your hats folks!

The Triangle is where bold ideas meet world-class innovation, and we’re honored to be spotlighted by 2ndF as one of the region’s Top 10 transformative deep tech companies! The Triangle’s unique combination of world-class research institutions, entrepreneurial spirit, and a collaborative ecosystem makes it a true powerhouse for innovation. We’re proud to call this region home and to contribute to its continued growth and global impact. Our advanced technologies are revolutionizing the animal AgTech sector and advancing our mission to build a more sustainable food supply. Thank you to Oval Park Capital for your continued support. Together, we’re shaping the future of innovation in the Triangle and beyond! Learn more about our mission: www.targan.com #Innovation | #Top10 | #TriangleNC | #TARGAN | #OvalParkCapital

Thanks to our friends at 2ndF for the thoughtful and well-written deep dive on the Deep Tech opportunity in the Triangle. We couldn't agree more that "the Triangle is uniquely positioned to build great companies in the applied sciences ... and focusing on deeptech startups will provide the largest ROI for our region in terms of both financial returns and ecosystem growth." We're glad to see Oval Park Capital portfolio companies like TARGAN Inc. and Natrx | Adaptive Infrastructure featured, and excited to follow along as The Spotlight grows!

Happy New Year from the Oval Park team! 2024 was another challenging year for most startups and many VC firms, with tightening customer budgets resulting in slower growth, the lack of market liquidity keeping the bar extremely high for companies seeking to raise capital from new investors, and most LP allocations flowing to large established VC fund managers over even the highest performing emerging managers. The Oval Park Capital team spent most of 2024 working in the trenches with our portfolio companies, but we’re often reminded to slow down and celebrate even the small victories along the way. While there’s still a lot of hard work ahead, we are incredibly proud of the resilience and progress of our portfolio company founders and their teams over the past year. The outlook has never been brighter. Click below for our 2024 recap and recognition of some of the small victories we're taking a moment to celebrate.

AI is transforming everything—industries, lives, even how we define the word “????????????." But let’s be honest: hardware compatibility is still the ball and chain holding us back. Developers are constantly wrestling with hardware quirks, compatibility nightmares, and performance tweaks when they ??????????? be focused on, you know, actual innovation. What if the next big leap in AI isn’t just about cramming more transistors into a chip, but about removing the barriers that slow developers down? That’s what we’re tackling. Our unified software platform is built to smash through the biggest bottleneck in AI today: hardware compatibility. Write your code once, and it just ??????????—from edge devices to the cloud, seamlessly and performantly. No compromises, no migraines, no “wait, why doesn’t this run on my GPU?” moments. This isn’t just about convenience. It’s about unlocking the full potential of AI, accelerating scalability, and enabling developers to build without limits. Curious? Tune in to "A Beginner's Guide to AI" to hear how we’re making it happen. https://lnkd.in/eMVn3qfe #AI #LemurianLabs #AIdevelopment #Software #CanYouComputeThat #FromCogsToCognition #StopThinkingStartComputing

Congratulations to Nichole Lowe and team Zoee on its recently-announced partnership with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN)! This collaboration brings together Zoee’s innovative technology platform with IIN’s industry-leading expertise in integrative health coaching, creating an unparalleled solution for empowering health coaches and improving patient outcomes. As the healthcare landscape evolves, tools like Zoee are revolutionizing how health coaches deliver personalized care, streamline and scale their practices, and drive meaningful health results for their clients. By joining forces with IIN, Zoee is making a powerful statement about the future of integrative health and the critical role technology plays in advancing this mission. This partnership exemplifies what’s possible when innovation meets expertise! Nichole Lowe Nora McCaffrey #HealthTech #IntegrativeHealth #Innovation #HealthCoaching #HealthcareTechnology #PatientCare #FutureOfHealthcare #DigitalHealth #StartupSuccess #HealthAndWellness #VentureCapital #HealthCoachingTools #EmpoweringHealthCoaches #HealthcareInnovation