In 2024, global venture funding rose to nearly $314 billion⸺a 3% increase from 2023⸺driven largely by a significant surge in AI investments. While this surpasses pre-pandemic levels, it still falls short of peaks from 2018 and 2020. And despite the overall increase, early-stage and seed investments have declined, making it harder than ever for startups to secure capital.

Despite these challenges, companies supported by Myriad continue to secure funding, demonstrating the power of our strategic connections and thoughtful guidance in navigating the venture ecosystem. In an investment environment defined by rapid technological change and evolving market dynamics, our Myriad Model has proven effective within just one year, helping next-gen companies evolve and adapt to the shifting landscape.

How the Myriad Model is Driving Innovation and Success

By leveraging our deep expertise, an extensive network of industry titans, and innovative investment strategy, we continue to identify, nurture, and sustain promising ventures. Last year’s business success speaks for itself: from launching MVFI to investing in the next wave of emerging trends, our Myriad Model has helped spark new opportunities and drive innovation across major industries.

But what we’re most proud of is the real-world impact our portfolio companies have made in 2024. Together, we’re advancing solutions to revitalize antiquated industries, enable secure enterprise collaboration, and unlock new business efficiencies

Take a closer look at the standout projects and investments that have defined our journey so far.

Reflecting on Top 2024 Milestones: Innovation and Impact

Since our official launch in January 2024, our Myriad Model has created 460 connections between 124 startups and 217 corporations. These introductions resulted in 50 proof-of-concepts and 16 commercial contracts. Additionally, we’ve welcomed 10 new companies into our portfolio, further expanding our impact.

Our commitment to innovation across high-impact sectors is evident in our strategic focus:

• 39% of introductions were to AI startups.
• 32% targeted enterprise software companies.
• 13% were to deep tech and industrial ventures.

This focus has driven progress across our portfolio:

• 31 Fortune 500 companies are now using technology developed by our portfolio companies.
• Myriad portfolio companies have raised $433.8M in additional capital following our initial check, with $182.2M raised in 2024 alone.
• With this new capital, Myriad portfolio companies have expanded their teams by an average of 130% this year and brought on a cumulative total of 106 new employees in the last quarter.

Our company and portfolio company announcements have been key drivers in the VC, AI, B2B, and deep tech media landscapes, resulting in 221 unique articles with a combined reach of over 6.4 million readers since our launch.

To learn more about other exciting developments from our portfolio, check out our blog: https://bit.ly/3BR2cpk

Launching our Executive Advisory Board

A key highlight of this year was the launch of our Executive Advisory Board, a core facet of our investment model that congregates industry giants across various fields. This board provides invaluable strategic guidance and early access to emerging trends, enterprise access, and feedback, empowering our portfolio companies to stay ahead of the curve.

Testimonials From Our Partners and Founders

The true testament to the Myriad Model comes from the experiences of those who work closely with us. Here are some testimonials from our Executive Advisory Board and portfolio company founders, reflecting on how our network and expertise have driven tangible results:

• Louie Pastor, Xerox's Chief Administrative Officer & Global Head of Operations: “As Xerox advances its Reinvention, our partnership with Myriad will help us source best-in-class technology solutions we can integrate into our commercial offerings and utilize to increase the productivity and efficiency of our organization. Xerox is proud to back Chris and the Myriad team, and we look forward to leveraging the Xerox and Myriad partnership to generate returns and create value.”
• Paul Lee, Patlytics Co-founder & CEO: “Our early journey has been profoundly shaped by the support of our investors at Myriad. Their belief in our mission from the outset has been a driving force behind our growth and success. The early introductions facilitated by the Myriad team across their global enterprise network have led to pivotal partnerships and commercial wins, translating directly into tangible value for Patlytics. These connections have opened doors to new markets, accelerated our product development, and boosted our revenue streams. Among other top-tier and tier-one venture capital companies I have worked with in the past and in an environment where capital is still viewed as a commodity, Myriad has quickly become my first call for the trust and value they instill as a long-term partner.”
• James DeMuth, Seurat Technologies CEO: “The Myriad team has been a key player in propelling Seurat’s growth and success for years. Their unwavering support and expansive network have been instrumental in realizing our vision to revolutionize manufacturing powered by 100% green energy. Myriad’s extensive expertise and unmatched corporate partnership network are invaluable as we transition from prototype to full-scale production. Our shared commitment to decarbonizing manufacturing underpins this partnership, and we look forward to continuing to work with Myriad to turn this vision into a reality.”
• Veerbhan Kheterpal, Quadric Co-founder & CEO: “The Myriad Model is unlike any investment approach I’ve seen. They understand the unique challenges startups face and provide the network and expertise needed to support our growth. With Myriad, we’re accelerating a foundation for success.”
• Karthik Kannan, Anvilogic Co-founder & CEO: “My experience working with the Myriad team has been great. Not only did they come in with a strong thesis about Anvilogic and the AI-driven cybersecurity space, but they also have since been consistent in providing us opportunities to meet prospective customers within their extensive network, with whom we have had commercial success.
• Dr. Zheng Li, Li Industries Co-founder & CEO: “Myriad has been a partner in every sense of the word, a champion of Li Industries’ mission, and an unwavering supporter that I can call upon at any time. When it comes to their strategic network, they have been a force multiplier for us as we scale our technology and business.”

Core Drivers of Innovation: The Three Pillars of Myriad

AI Apps: Across the VC landscape, there is a growing focus on solutions that streamline business operations across sectors, addressing a critical need for efficiency. AI is at the forefront of these enterprise transformations, particularly in industries like HR and legal tech, where new technologies are disrupting traditional workflows and setting new standards.

The AI application layer is now gaining momentum with enterprises, supported by emerging infrastructure design stacks. Organizations are beginning to integrate these capabilities into core workflows, generating measurable business value across diverse sectors. This activity also sets the stage for broader, long-term innovation as companies refine and expand their use of generative AI.

However, as the saturated AI market poses challenges to the longevity of many startups and adoption challenges for large enterprises, Myriad’s unique business, accelerated time to insights model, and strategic connections tackle the innovator’s dilemma head-on for enterprises in our network while helping founders build enduring success by guiding them through the complexities of the evolving market landscape:

• Patlytics
  
  • In November 2024, we led additional funding for Patlytics, an AI-powered platform transforming intellectual property workflows.
  • From patent generation to claim charts, infringement detection, and classification, Patlytics delivers up to 80% greater efficiency for IP professionals.
  • By automating tedious processes, the platform empowers businesses and law firms to focus on high-impact IP strategies and innovation.

• Wexler AI
  
  • The London-based company is bringing advanced GenAI to the legal sector, automating labor-intensive legal tasks⸺such as drafting correspondence or submitting court applications⸺streamlining document review time and driving down errors.
  • Following a successful pre-seed investment led by Myriad, Wexler AI announced significant product enhancements driving adoption among leading law firms, including Burges Salmon. Clifford Chance is also exploring the platform in its world-leading litigation and dispute resolution practice.
  • Since its launch in April, Wexler AI has processed over one million queries, achieved approximately 2X month-over-month growth, and more than tripled its annual recurring revenue (ARR).

• Cascade AI (also backed by Google’s AI fund)
  
  • In 2024, we also invested in Cascade’s $3.75 million seed round, led by Gradient, Google’s early-stage AI fund.
  • Cascade AI is streamlining HR workflows with its GenAI-powered platform.
  • From onboarding to benefits management, the platform is making data more accessible and cutting down on administrative work by as much as 50 percent.
  • This allows HR teams to focus on what truly matters: creating a personalized and engaging employee experience.
    

• Sentra
  
  • In 2023, we invested in Sentra’s $30 million Series A round.
  • Sentra’s platform uses advanced AI to uncover, classify, and safeguard sensitive data across hybrid environments, enabling businesses to stay secure and compliant.

AI Infrastructure & Developer Tools: AI has become integral across nearly every industry, presenting new challenges and unprecedented opportunities. In Q3 2024 alone, venture capitalists poured $3.9 billion into GenAI startups across 206 deals, underscoring strong interest in the transformative potential of this technology.

While there’s no shortage of optimism or funding for generative AI, many enterprise executives are carefully determining how best to align this technology with their core operations. The absence of a clear roadmap doesn’t mean they’re investing without direction; it simply highlights that we’re still in the early stages of a broader shift. Leaders are beginning to recognize the wide-ranging ways generative AI could reshape their organizations, prompting a cautious but deliberate exploration of what this technology can deliver. As the next wave of AI players and innovations are being built to transform solutions across enterprise functions and verticals, our Myriad Model has been proven to identify and support these early-stage technologies. In this process, we also help enterprises partner with emerging technologies to drive innovation, improve efficiency, and mitigate the innovator’s dilemma, ensuring relevance and agility in a rapidly evolving landscape:

• AI infrastructure company (stealth) ⸺ TBA
  
  • We are proud to invest in a company developing the world’s most powerful AI model router.
  • Its technology automatically determines which LLM is best suited to respond to any query, improving model output quality while reducing costs and latency and outperforms every individual model by routing effectively between them, opening a new frontier for the performance and generalizability of LLMs.

Industrial Revitalization: In 2024, venture capitalists invested $30 billion in climate tech across 1,460 deals worldwide. While VC funding in climate tech has generally decreased, significant opportunities and continued investments remain. VC funding in areas related to defense, supply chains, and domestic capabilities is on the rise. We expect to see growth in areas where climate solutions intersect with national security, business resiliency, and operational efficiency:

• Li Industries
  
  • As early backers of Li Industries, we believed in their mission from the start. We re-invested in Li Industries' latest $36 million Series B round to advance lithium-ion battery recycling technology, addressing a critical need in the battery material supply chain.
  • Li Industries’ cutting-edge approach enables more efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly recycling of lithium batteries, fostering circularity, domestication, and resiliency in the battery supply chain.
  • Recently, Li Industries secured a $55 million grant from the Department of Energy to scale up battery recycling capacity⸺an important step toward U.S. leadership in sustainable energy and battery infrastructure.

• Climatize
  
  • Myriad was the lead investor for Climatize's $1.75 million pre-seed round, addressing the funding gap for distributed renewable energy projects benefiting small and mid-sized businesses.  
  • Climatize’s Fast Company World Changing Ideas winning platform makes it easy for non-traditional investors, including individuals, regional banks, and larger financial institutions, to participate in renewable infrastructure investments.
  • Moreover, Climatize provides a way for small and medium-sized businesses to achieve energy resiliency in the face of increasing extreme weather events. In the wake of damage caused by Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene, energy grids across the Southeast US were knocked out for several days.
  • Yet MB Reps, a local business in Georgia, maintained operations during a 7-day grid outage thanks to a solar plus storage system funded by Climatize.  
  • By focusing on democratizing clean energy adoption and diversifying energy resiliency, Climatize is leading the way in solving energy emergencies in multiple ways.
    

Looking Ahead

As always, we remain committed to the principles of the Myriad Model⸺connecting founders with the right opportunities, delivering value across our network, and sparking innovation that helps businesses adapt and thrive in an ever-evolving market.

By leveraging our network and facilitating introductions, we aim to help founders navigate challenges, remain relevant, and drive solutions that will shape the future of industries. From enterprise software and industrial revitalization innovations to advancements in legal tech and HR, we are proud to partner with companies that are driving meaningful change in the industries of tomorrow.

We look forward to the year ahead, working alongside visionary leaders and sharing stories of innovation, progress, and impact.