Visual Layer Announces $7 Million in Seed Funding from Madrona and Insight Partners to Provide Billion-Scale Visual Data Management Platform

TEL AVIV–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Visual Layer announced today $7 million in seed financing from Madrona and Insight Partners to curate the massive sets of visual data used to train, test, and fine-tune generative AI models. The endemic problem of images and videos that are incorrectly labeled or are broken, missing, or duplicates means that they degenerate model quality. As these datasets have grown to over 10 billion visual assets, it has become impractical and even impossible to curate them efficiently. Visual Layer addresses this challenge directly through a managed service that curates and “cleans” the data, enabling scientists and ML practitioners to produce higher-quality models and results.

Computer vision researchers know that the quality of AI models is directly a result of the quality of the data on which they are trained. Visual Layer has found that up to 30% of these massive image and video collections, amounting to hundreds of millions of assets, fall into this ‘messy’ category and are skewing models that businesses and organizations are leveraging for products and services, causing downstream headaches, missed opportunities and wasted valuable engineering cycles.

“Companies and organizations across the globe are experiencing the explosion of data, and visual data is one of the most complex and challenging data types to manage. Understanding, curating, and managing this content is crucial to building meaningful services for customers in a broad set of industries – from retail to manufacturing to self-driving cars and more,” commented Danny Bickson, co-founder and CEO. “Companies are struggling with those huge amounts of data; they often have no clue where their data is and what is inside it. They develop homegrown tools since there is no infrastructure or common standards.”

Visual Layer founders Danny Bickson and Amir Alush led sophisticated computer vision teams at Apple and Brodmann17. They dealt with these data quality problems daily and attempted to neutralize them with advanced science. But they discovered that almost no amount of science could make up for the underlying issues in the data. It is more beneficial to focus on the data quality itself rather than relying on dirty data and trying to optimize the algorithms. Dealing with messy data on the front end avoids many issues that the team found unsolvable in their previous roles.

Visual Layer is built on top of the open-source package fastdup, which was created by the same team. fastdup has a growing community of 200,000 early adopters. That community includes enterprises such as Meesho, an Indian social commerce platform where 13 million resellers transact. “Meesho is using fastdup to improve the quality of our image gallery of 200 million products and automatically detect and fix data quality issues,” said Srinvassa Rao Jami, lead computer vision manager at Meesho.

“Despite the idea that bigger datasets mean better models when it comes to images and video, messy underlying datasets can produce suboptimal models and error-prone results. Now with the reality of large-scale AI models, we must solve the data problem. The immediate excitement we saw after the launch of fastdup made clear to us that customers agree. We are excited to work with the Visual Layer team and the fastdup community to build a new, foundational component of the AI application stack,” said Jon Turow, Partner at Madrona.

“The growing adoption of generative AI models has created a growing need for reliable visual datasets to train them. With their innovative technology, Visual Layer enables engineers and data scientists to quickly identify and fix issues with visual training data, allowing for more accurate generative models to come to market quicker. Insight is thrilled to partner with Danny and the Visual Layer team on this exciting next chapter in the company’s growth journey,” said Liad Agmon, Managing Director at Insight Partners.

To learn more, sign up to access Visual Layer at https://visual-layer.com.

The Team:

Visual Layer is led by a team of experienced professionals with a proven track record in the visual data management and computer vision industry. Our co-founders are Dr. Danny Bickson and Dr. Amir Alush, who bring years of industry experience and academic expertise to the team, and Carlos Guestrin, a CS professor at Stanford University and a world-renowned expert in machine learning and artificial intelligence.
https://twitter.com/visual_layer
https://www.linkedin.com/company/visual-layer/

About Madrona

Madrona (www.madrona.com) is a venture capital firm with over 25 years of investing in early-stage technology companies, the firm has worked with founders from Day One to help build their company for the long run. Madrona initially invests in seed and Series A rounds across the information technology spectrum and in acceleration stage (Series B and C) companies building intelligent applications. Madrona manages $3 billion and was an early investor in companies such as Amazon, Smartsheet, Snowflake, Apptio, Redfin, and UI Path. Based in Seattle, with a substantial Pacific NW footprint, the firm has an office in Menlo Park and invests across the US.

About Insight Partners

Insight Partners is a global software investor partnering with high-growth technology, software, and Internet startup and ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. As of December 31, 2022, the firm has over $75B in regulatory assets under management. Insight Partners has invested in more than 750 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO. Headquartered in New York City, Insight has offices in London, Tel Aviv, and Palo Alto. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with right-sized, right-time practical, hands-on software expertise along their growth journey, from their first investment to IPO. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on Twitter @insightpartners.

Keeper Security Announces Minority Growth Equity Investment from Summit Partners

CHICAGO, May 9, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Keeper Security (“Keeper” or the “Company”), a leading provider of zero-trust and zero-knowledge cybersecurity software, today announced that global growth equity firm Summit Partners has completed a significant minority investment in the Company. With this investment, Len Ferrington, Managing Director at Summit Partners, will join the Keeper Security Board of Directors. The synergy between Keeper, Summit and existing investor Insight Partners will further accelerate product innovation and catalyze strategic expansion of the Company’s prominence as a cybersecurity leader in the public and private sectors.

Keeper has seen strong growth in its global operations since raising its last round of funding in August 2020. The Company has added several hundred new employees, acquired remote network access provider Glyptodon, expanded its industry certifications to include earning FedRAMP and StateRAMP Authorization, opened new data centers in Australia, Canada and Japan, and expanded its partner ecosystem across the NorAm, EMEA and APAC regions. Keeper doubled its revenue while maintaining strong gross margins and continued its trajectory with Q1 2023 marking the Company’s strongest quarter on record. This latest investment will accelerate Keeper’s growth and solidify the Company’s position as an innovator in enterprise password management, secrets management, privileged connection management and privileged access management.

“Insight Partners is and has been a fantastic partner that has helped us with go-to-market strategies and best practices. I’ve known Len Ferrington and the Summit team for many years. They have deep experience investing in cybersecurity and a shared passion for the Keeper vision,” said Darren Guccione, CEO and Co-Founder of Keeper Security. “I’m excited about the expanded perspective that both Insight and Summit will bring to Keeper, supporting our exceptional team as we continue to create and deliver industry-leading technology and innovation.”

“While the current economic environment has led to a contraction in many areas of technology investment, the demand for secure and accessible cybersecurity solutions continues to accelerate,” said Len Ferrington, Managing Director at Summit Partners. “Summit has invested in security software for more than thirty years. We are impressed with the breadth of the Keeper product portfolio as well as the Company’s growth, and we are excited to see Keeper work to further disrupt the cybersecurity industry.”

“We saw great potential in Keeper and they’ve surpassed our expectations as a consistently high-performing company in the industry,” said Thomas Krane, Managing Director at Insight Partners. “This strategic investment will elevate Keeper even further, expanding its ability to provide best-in-class cybersecurity solutions to organizations around the world.”

Keeper was co-founded in 2011 by CEO Darren Guccione and CTO Craig Lurey as a password manager for mobile devices. Since then, the Company has developed a robust cybersecurity platform with a clear focus on fulfilling critical unmet needs of the rapidly growing identity and access management market. Today, Keeper’s solutions include a full suite of award-winning consumer and business offerings in password, secrets and privileged connection management, as well as differentiators including dark web monitoring, secure file storage, single-sign on integration, compliance reporting and detailed event logging. The Company services organizations of all sizes from small home offices to multinational enterprises and the largest public sector organizations. Enterprises select Keeper because of its strong security architecture; ability to support federated and passwordless authentication with any identity provider; seamless integration into on-premises, cloud or hybrid environments; and ease of use across desktop and mobile devices.

Its latest offering, KeeperPAM™, provides a next-generation Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution that is disrupting the traditional PAM market. KeeperPAM delivers enterprise-grade password, secrets and privileged connection management within a unified SaaS platform that is cost-effective, easy-to-use and simple-to-deploy. KeeperPAM enables least-privilege access with zero-trust and zero-knowledge security. Keeper’s patented cybersecurity solution is designed to enable complete visibility, security, control and reporting across every privileged user on every device within an organization.

Keeper is committed to maintaining the highest standards of security through continuous testing and auditing. Keeper holds the longest standing SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certifications in the industry. Keeper is GDPR compliant and CCPA compliant, PCI DSS certified, FedRAMP and StateRAMP Authorized, and certified by TrustArc for online privacy. The Company is consistently ranked as having the top-rated password management platform on the market. Keeper has a 4.9 out of 5-star rating on the App Store and 4.6 out of 5-star rating on Google Play, with more than 250,000 combined reviews.

Evercore served as financial advisor to both Keeper Security and Insight Partners. No other terms of this private transaction are being disclosed.

About Keeper Security, Inc.
Keeper Security is transforming cybersecurity for people and organizations around the world. Keeper’s affordable and easy-to-use solutions are built on a foundation of zero-trust and zero-knowledge security to protect every user on every device. Our next-generation privileged access management solution deploys in minutes and seamlessly integrates with any tech stack to prevent breaches, reduce help desk costs and ensure compliance. Trusted by millions of individuals and thousands of organizations, Keeper is a leader for best-in-class password management, secrets management, privileged access, secure remote access and encrypted messaging. Learn more at KeeperSecurity.com.

About Summit Partners
Founded in 1984, Summit Partners is a global alternative investment firm that is currently managing more than $36 billion in capital dedicated to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities. Summit invests across growth sectors of the economy and has invested in more than 550 companies in technology, healthcare and other growth industries. Summit maintains offices in North America and Europe and invests in companies around the world. For more information, please see SummitPartners.com or follow Summit on LinkedIn.

About Insight Partners
Insight Partners is a global software investor partnering with high-growth technology, software, and internet startup and ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. As of December 31, 2022, the firm has over $75B in regulatory assets under management. Insight Partners has invested in more than 750 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO. Headquartered in New York City, Insight has offices in London, Tel Aviv, and Palo Alto. Insight’s mission is to find, fund and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with right-sized, right-time practical, hands-on software expertise along their growth journey, from their first investment to IPO. For more information on Insight and its investments, visit InsightPartners.com or follow on Twitter @InsightPartners.

AWARD: Inc. Best Workplaces of 2023

Insight Partners has been named to Inc.’s 2023 Best Workplaces list.*

Read the article and complete list of winners on the Inc. website here.

*The award referenced herein is the opinion of the party conferring the award and not of Insight Partners. Mansueto Ventures, an independent third party that is not affiliated with Insight, issued the award. The time period upon which the award was based was 1/2022 – 12/2022. The award was given on 4/19/23. Insight submitted an application and employee survey, and paid a fee in connection with submitting its application. In general, the receipt of compensation influences, and is likely to present a potential material conflict of interest, relating to any granted award.

Celebrating ten companies focused on environmental sustainability this Earth Day

From saving the bees, to conserving water, or making carbon credits more accessible, Insight has invested in some incredible ScaleUps that are making the earth a better, more sustainable place to live. We’re proud to support these leaders on Earth Day.

AMCS
AMCS is the leading supplier of integrated software and vehicle technology for the waste, recycling and material resources industries.

Beewise

Beewise is a company with one mission in mind: saving the bees. This exclusive focus of the company is manifested in its first solution, the Beehome, the world’s first autonomous beehive with an integrated robotic beekeeper.

“Putting the focus on environmental sustainability on Earth Day is a wonderful thing, but with our planet in crisis, it is critical to think about sustainability the other 364 days of the year too. One way to stay hyper-focused on sustainability is to build a business that ‘does well by doing good.’ That’s why when we founded Beewise with the goal of reversing the global bee colony collapse crisis and thereby securing the global food supply, we made sure our business was intrinsically aligned with our mission. For every dollar we make, we save at least two bees.”

– Saar Safra, CEO & Co-Founder, Beewise

CoreLogic

CoreLogic, a leading provider of property insights and solutions, promotes a healthy housing market and thriving communities. Through its enhanced property data solutions, services and technologies, CoreLogic enables real estate professionals, financial institutions, insurance carriers, government agencies and other housing market participants to help millions of people find, buy, and protect their homes.

“Happy Earth Day! At CoreLogic, we are proud to be at the forefront of leveraging innovation for a better planet. Our Climate Risk Analytics solution is empowering our customers to mitigate climate risks associated with their properties, from floods to wildfires and more. We are committed to using data and advanced analytics to build resilient communities and safeguard homes while also actively working to reduce our environmental footprint and promote sustainable practices across our operations.”

– Patrick Dodd, President and CEO, CoreLogic

Diligent

Diligent is the pioneer of modern governance, empowering leaders to turn effective governance into a competitive advantage.

“The future of doing well by doing good by our environment is not just an aspirational or trendy value. A lot of people warn businesses that ESG regulations are on the way, but in many parts of the globe, regulations are here to drive behavior change and they are trending strong in North America. I am so excited to be in a position to help you and your business get ready.”

– Amanda Carty, Managing Director of ESG & Data Intelligence, Diligent

Klir

Klir is the single operating system for water. With one platform to connect every team, Klir allows water utilities to manage critical processes across the entire water system—from permits, to sampling, and inspections, and everything in between.

“Water is the #1 challenge facing humanity. You’ve no doubt seen troubling headlines on drought, flash floods, and water scarcity, or maybe you’re even seeing it in your own backyard. That’s why now, more than ever before, water managers need access to accurate, up-to-date information so that they can analyze the health of their water system and tackle these challenges—and that’s what we’re delivering at Klir.”

– David Lynch, CEO & Co-Founder, Klir

Olea

Olea’s proven technology empowers utilities to optimize water delivery, billing and conservation so cities can generate millions more in revenue. Committed to helping water utilities combat aging infrastructure, meet greater demand and limit rate increases, Olea’s patented solution combines IoT and edge computing capabilities to bring transparency, accuracy and reliability to the delivery of the world’s most precious resource.

OneTrust

OneTrust is the #1 fastest growing and most widely used technology platform to help organizations be more trusted, and operationalize privacy, security, data governance, and ethics and compliance programs.

“OneTrust helps make environmental impact a foundational part of every organization. As global environmental crises put sustainability at the top of the corporate agenda, we help organizations avoid greenwashing and regulatory scrutiny with ESG Program Management. Making ESG reporting simpler and more streamlined means organizations can transparently show progress against climate commitments and demonstrate integrity with their consumers, partners, employees, and most importantly the planet.”

– Dan Quintas, Head of Product and Strategy, ESG & Sustainability Cloud, OneTrust.

Project Canary

Project Canary is a SaaS-based data analytics company focused on environmental performance or the “E” in ESG for emission-intensive companies.

Sylvera

Sylvera’s mission is to be a source of truth for carbon markets by 2024. We help corporate sustainability leaders, carbon traders, and policymakers confidently evaluate and invest in the best carbon credits by providing comprehensive and accessible insights on carbon projects.

“If we’re to prevent catastrophic global warming, we need corporations to prioritise climate action and protecting our ecosystems. After emissions reduction, one of the most urgent available levers is purchasing carbon credits, which fund projects around the globe that are either reducing or capturing carbon dioxide or the equivalent amount of greenhouse gas. However, for years, companies had to buy these credits in the dark, not knowing their true climate impact – Until Sylvera.

We’re on a mission to bring transparency to this historically opaque market. We use a combination of proprietary tech including satellite imagery and machine learning models, complemented by boots on the ground, to rate the quality of projects so that organisations can make their climate investment decisions with confidence.”

— Allister Furey, CEO and Co-founder of Sylvera

Wint

WINT is passionate about helping the world conserve one of its most precious resources and dedicated to helping businesses prevent the hazards, costs, waste and environmental impact associated with water leaks and waste.

In general, Insight believes that innovative software and technology will play a critical role in achieving a more sustainable and prosperous future. Through our traditional software investment pipeline, we find that we are frequently sourcing, evaluating, and partnering with software companies that may contribute to addressing some of society’s pressing environmental and social challenges. However, please note that Insight is not an “impact investor,” meaning we not make investments with any explicit intent to contribute to measurable positive social or environmental outcomes. Moreover, our Funds do not have sustainable investment as their objective (within the meaning of SFDR Article 9, or otherwise), nor do our Funds actively seek to promote environmental or social characteristics through their investments (within the meaning of SFDR Article 8, or otherwise).

AWARD: GrowthCap Top 25 Growth Equity Firms of 2022

Insight Partners has been named a Top 25 Growth Equity Firm of 2022* by GrowthCap Advisory.

Read the article and complete list of winners on the GrowthCap website here.

* The award referenced herein is the opinion of the party conferring the award and not of Insight Partners. GrowthCap, LLC (“GrowthCap”), an independent third party that is not affiliated with Insight, issued the award. The time period upon which the award was based was 1/22 – 12/22. The award was given on 1/26/23. After being notified by GrowthCap of Insight’s selection for the award, Insight paid a fee to secure award receipt. In general, the receipt of compensation influences, and is likely to present a potential material conflict of interest, relating to any granted award. GrowthCap’s recognition is not indicative of Insight’s future performance and was not based on evaluations of clients or investors of Insight. There can be no assurance that other providers or surveys would reach the same conclusion as the foregoing.

Compensation 101: Building Consistent Salary Ranges and Bands from Scratch

Key Insights

With new pay transparency laws in New York and California, companies with as few as four employees now need to consider their compensation philosophy.
For early-stage companies that might not have HR resources or guidance yet, establishing a compensation philosophy often falls to founders.
Establishing salary ranges can help founders communicate their company’s compensation philosophy and stay compliant with the new pay transparency laws.

New year, new laws. One of the latest: California’s Pay Transparency Law. The new law states that companies with 15 or more employees and at least one employee in California must include pay ranges in all job postings. According to enforcement guidance issued by the California Labor Commission, the pay scale must be included in the job posting if the position may ever be filled in California, either in-person or remotely. New York City and New York State have recently enacted similar legislation. It is crucial for founders of early-stage companies to stay updated on these new regulations and understand their potential impact on their businesses.

To comply with the pay transparency laws, companies need to post salary ranges in “good faith,” i.e., a salary range the company honestly believes and reasonably expects it will pay for the role at the time of posting the job opening.

Deeper insight: Pay Transparency is Here to Stay. How Can You Build Salary Ranges in Good Faith?

One way to help simplify the compliance process is by standardizing your company’s compensation structure with clear salary ranges and pay grades/bands. While this doesn’t guarantee compliance, it does help streamline the process. But the benefits of this standardization exercise go beyond helping to meet legal requirements. Establishing a consistent compensation structure can also promote pay equity and help foster a culture of fairness and transparency throughout your organization. It is also a prime opportunity for founders to take an active role in shaping the company culture and values.

While some companies may have already established compensation bands, for many ScaleUps, this is a new endeavor. So, how should companies think about creating salary ranges and pay grades/bands if they need to start from scratch?

Here are seven key considerations to help founders or early-stage HR leaders establish consistent and fair salary ranges.

1. Define your compensation philosophy

Your compensation philosophy explains the “why” behind your pay decisions. It provides guidance to your organization on how to make pay decisions. Your philosophy should include how you approach each compensation element (i.e., base salary, bonus, target total cash, equity). You will need to determine what proportion of pay is tied to base salary versus short-term (cash bonus) or long-term incentives (equity). You will also need to specify market targets (i.e., percentiles) for each compensation component.

2. Conduct a job analysis based on internal data to align on job families, roles, and levels

First outline the key responsibilities, qualifications, and day-to-day tasks for each role at your organization. There are several ways to do this:

Leveraging your own general knowledge of the organization
Observing employees in their roles
Conducting surveys
Referencing job descriptions
Interviewing employees

You will then group the roles at your organization into the appropriate job families and levels (e.g., manager, senior manager, director). Once you’ve established these groupings, stack rank the importance of these roles to your organization.

3. Leverage broad-based compensation market data based on job family and level

Market data is key to building pay grades/bands and salary ranges that are competitive. When leveraging market data, you should match your job families and roles to the data based on the overall job description and responsibilities versus relying only on the job title. Sometimes you might have to combine two different roles within the market data to ensure it covers all aspects of your role.

Additionally, it is important to note that many compensation benchmark tools leverage historical salary data and might not reflect current salary trends. Keep this in mind as you build your pay grades/bands and salary ranges.

4. Determine pay grades/bands

Start by grouping positions of similar worth at your company (i.e., they fulfill similar expectations and have similar levels of responsibility). Entry-level positions often act as the starting point of a pay grade/band because they have less training and experience.

Early stage companies might only have 3-4 pay grades/bands, whereas later-stage companies might have upwards of 10. It is important to note that there is no limit to the number of pay grades within an organization.

pay scale skills analysis

salary ranges and pay grades

This is an illustrative example. Sources: University of Florida – HR, Case Western University – HR

5. Build your salary ranges

Now you can begin building your salary ranges. These ranges should include a minimum, midpoint, and maximum dollar (or other currency) value for each role and level. It is common for salary ranges to overlap to enable career progression in a cost-effective way.

6. Educate your managers

You want to ensure your managers understand your company’s pay philosophy so they can more easily explain to candidates and current employees how the organization makes its compensation decisions. This should include how compensation levels are determined, how the bonus plan works, and the ability to speak to equity.

7. Regularly reassess your salary ranges

Building salary ranges isn’t a one-and-done exercise. You will need to reassess your compensation philosophy and adjust as needed. These adjustments will be based on both internal (i.e., cash reserves) and external factors (i.e., market conditions).

Hiring managers should also review the established ranges prior to including them in any job postings. This will help ensure they accurately reflect what the company honestly believes and reasonably expects it will pay based on the specific considerations of the role and fine-tune if necessary. To the extent a posted salary range deviates from a role’s salary band, you should document why.

While salary banding may seem like a daunting task, getting this exercise right will help ready you for the new pay transparency laws coming online. While this work doesn’t replace the compliance process, it is complementary and will help streamline the process. Beyond compliance, a consistent pay policy will help you attract, retain and motivate employees, and build a healthy culture and organization long-term.

Want to discuss further? Onsite’s HR experts can help. Contact us: HRonCall@insightpartners.com

Please note that this guidance is not legal advice. We suggest consulting with an employment lawyer if you have any questions about complying with pay transparency or pay equity laws.

Insurtech startup OpenEyes emerges from stealth with $23M, catering to fleets with tech-powered commercial auto insurance

NEW YORK, Feb. 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — OpenEyes, an insurtech company serving commercial automotive fleets, today emerged from stealth with $18 million in Series A funding led by global software investor Insight Partners and Pitango First, with participation by MoreVC, which led the seed round together with Pitango First. OpenEyes will use the funding to fuel the development of its cutting-edge technology and to hire additional team members to support its increasing US operations. To date, OpenEyes has raised a total of $23 million.

OpenEyes offers commercial automotive insurance to fleets of all kinds at more competitive rates, first and foremost by reducing the frequency and severity of traffic accidents. Using OpenEyes’s innovative technology, fleet managers and safety officers can identify the sources of risk in their fleet, empowering them to implement practices that reduce the frequency of accidents. In addition, OpenEyes enables precise underwriting and streamlines claims handling and prevention. Having rebuilt commercial automotive insurance for fleets from the ground up, OpenEyes offers competitive rates to a commercial automotive insurance market that has been plagued for years by rising costs for carriers and fleets alike.

“Large numbers of accidents and high costs of claims in commercial fleets are leading to ever-increasing premiums on commercial auto insurance, making it difficult for fleet to afford coverage and maintain operational efficiency. In addition, insurance companies have been losing money for years paying out accident claims, and little or nothing is being done to address and reduce the core risks. Instead, carriers raise premiums each year to cover the ever-increasing costs of accidents,” said Yoav Oron, Co-Founder and CEO of OpenEyes. “This broken market dynamic is particularly difficult in a recessionary environment and, moreover, it disregards the human cost and impact of these accidents. Truckers and bus drivers are the essential workers that power the American economy, and without proper insurance that leverages technology to reduce accident frequency and severity, their families can suffer dearly after an accident.”

Co-founded by Yoav Oron (CEO), Dr. Omry Sendik (CTO) and Dan Charash (Chairman), OpenEyes is committed to reducing accidents while reducing the cost of insurance. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimated that the number of people who died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2021 increased by 10.5% from 2020—the highest numbers of fatalities since 2005 and the largest annual percentage increase in history. In addition, studies by NHTSA show that large truck crashes are roughly three times more likely to result in injuries when compared to passenger vehicles.

OpenEyes is already being used by fleets driving millions of miles nationwide. The independently validated results demonstrate that OpenEyes has helped reduce the frequency of accidents by over 25.5%, and the severity of claims by over 30%.

“Since our launch two years ago, we have witnessed first-hand how OpenEyes’ solution lowers the insurable risk and the cost of claims, but more importantly, we have seen accidents reduced and lives saved,” continued Oron. “We look forward to using the proceeds of our recent round to bring this to more customers in the North American market.”

“We set out to turn the tables on insurance losses by equipping fleets, insurance partners and ourselves with a pair of eyes. Our goal is to become the first insurance company that is actively reducing accidents and saving lives while saving money,” said co-founder and CTO Sendik.

In addition to the specialized backgrounds of its co-founders and R&D team in both engineering and actuarial science, OpenEyes is partnering with leading insurance veterans and driving safety professionals to ensure it provides the best possible product. “We are proud of our achievements so far, and together with our outstanding team, we are looking forward to bringing a massive positive change to this critical industry,” said the founders.

“OpenEyes provides a novel one-stop-shop solution that enables fleets to truly understand their source of risk, from both the fleets’ as well as the insurers’ perspective. This precise understanding allows OpenEyes to power their underwriting, driver coaching and prevention, and claims handling,” said Daniel Aronovitz, Principal at Insight Partners. “We look forward to partnering with OpenEyes as the company continues to grow.”

“OpenEyes leverages cutting edge full stack technological solution to fundamentally alter the risk model of commercial fleets insurance. The integration between In-vehicle technology and insurance creates a new experience for fleet owners,” said Eyal Niv, Managing Partner at Pitango First, which co-led OpenEyes’ seed round. “In the intersection between technology and InsureTech-play, the company’s proprietary solution increases driver safety and collision avoidance while providing a faster and more accurate claim management process.”

“When we met the OpenEyes founders in the dark days of the Covid pandemic in February of 2020, we knew that they had the core values and product direction to bring light and relief to one of the largest insurance markets in the world,” said Jack Levy at MoreVC. “We are incredibly proud to have led their seed round, and excited to continue to support their mission driven approach that has already saved many lives and brought much needed financial relief and a better experience to their customers.”

About OpenEyes
To learn more about OpenEyes visit www.openeyes.com.

About Insight Partners
Insight Partners is a global software investor partnering with high-growth technology, software, and Internet startup and ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. As of June 30, 2022, the firm has over $80B in regulatory assets under management. Insight Partners has invested in more than 700 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO. Headquartered in New York City, Insight has offices in London, Tel Aviv, and Palo Alto. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with right-sized, right-time practical, hands-on software expertise along their growth journey, from their first investment to IPO. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on Twitter @insightpartners.

Behind the Investment – AtomicJar

Insight Partners has a rich history of investing in developer testing tools. We’re proud to have supported companies like SmartBear, Tricentis/QASymphony, Browserstack, Waldo, and others which help their customers accelerate release cycles and deliver better, more stable end products.

An emergent technique within testing we have closely monitored is integration testing – the testing of interdependent code and resources to ensure components operate as expected. As developers shift toward microservices, testing the interconnection of application components is becoming ubiquitous and an integral part of the development process.

Testcontainers has widely become the leading open-source software for integration tests, with ~7 million monthly Docker downloads and a vibrant and passionate developer community. The community’s growth is accelerating. Using Testcontainers, developers can spin up testing environments for common integration and UI tests using Docker containers, which act as “throwaway” instances for production-like replicas of external resources (e.g., databases, web browsers, other microservices). This enables faster creation and execution of integration tests and mitigates many painful issues for developers that come from spinning up and taking down tests manually.

There are lots of obstacles to using integration testing, particularly for more complex software. Keeping local testing environments up-to-date with new code releases is cumbersome. Running integration tests is taxing on local developer machines. Replicating tests from one machine to another is not as simple as it seems. Many developers we’ve spoken to have had some form of the “works only on my machine” problem where a test is successful on their laptop but not a teammate’s!

The Testcontainers’ founders set out to build a cloud-hosted, commercial version – driven by the simple belief that running Testcontainers in the cloud would provide clear improvements to development velocity and better enterprise deployments.

For this they are now launching Testcontainers Cloud (TCC). Through this new product, developers can seamlessly route integration tests to cloud servers and fine-tune their test environments to production-grade specifications, resolving the “works on my machine” problem. By sending tests to the cloud, developers also free up local compute resources and enable tests to run up to 3x faster. Developers do not even need Docker installed on their machine and can now take advantage of Cloud IDEs and other live collaboration tools.

With the launch of Testcontainers Cloud to public beta, AtomicJar offers a full suite of integration testing products. AtomicJar streamlines integration testing for software projects, regardless of scope or complexity.

Before making our investment, we conducted extensive diligence that included surveying hundreds of developers, talking to many of AtomicJar’s beta customers, and deeply understanding the product and its roadmap and were excited by the size of the opportunity that will continue to grow as microservices continue to get adopted by companies of all sizes. We are thrilled about AtomicJar’s potential to improve the productivity of the almost 90M software developers across a wide range of industries, geographies, and software development methodologies. We’re excited to partner with them as they help lead the “shift left” of best-in-class software testing and delivery.

How to Select an Investor in 2023

Preparing to raise capital in 2023 might feel daunting given the market, but it doesn’t need to be. For great businesses, there are investors (like Insight) who are ready to invest.

Before thinking about raising money, we’re going to assume founders have checked off some of the basics listed below:

Know your specific business needs for the investment. This should be deeper than the amount of money you need to raise. Founders/CEOs seeking funding should have a well-defined business plan that outlines company growth goals, target market, financial projections, and competitive advantage. This helps articulate the value of your business to potential investors and demonstrates an understanding of the industry and market.
Prepare your leadership team. Fundraising takes time away from running the business, which means your leadership team must have the skills, experience, and dedication to execute the business plan and drive the company’s growth. Assemble a team that has a diverse range of skills and expertise needed to achieve the company’s goals.
Have a clear plan for using the funding. Investors want to see a clear plan for how the new funding will be used to drive the company’s growth and generate a return on investment. Be prepared to present a realistic, detailed plan for how the investment will be used to achieve specific milestones and grow the business.
Finally, map the market of potential investors. Asking other entrepreneurs for advice and introductions is a great way to start the fundraising process.

Once these steps are done, you’re ready to begin seriously contemplating your next fundraising partner. Deciding to bring someone new onto your cap table can significantly strengthen your business for the years ahead and inject the capital needed to move from a startup to a scaleup.

Some tips for founders:

Prenup discussions on the second date.

Being prepared with your goals and expectations for raising capital is great, but in today’s market, it’s important to have an open mind and willingness to have a conversation. In the negotiation of final documents, there is always a clear set of rights regarding rules of engagement if things go right — and if things go wrong. While this can feel as off-putting as discussing a prenuptial agreement early in a relationship, it is important all sides understand rights and agreements for all scenarios. Consider your position if things go wrong. What happens when things go wrong is as important as the conditions when things go right.

Consider dilution in addition to valuation.

You’re obviously seeking out capital, but don’t simply fixate on your company’s valuation number or the specific amount of money you want to raise. The more important consideration in the long run will be understanding the percentage of the cap table you are hoping to raise. While value is always important, if you are only raising primary capital you should consider dilution more than the post-money value. For example, if you are hoping to raise $25M at a $125M post (20% dilution), you can offset a 25% price disappointment by lowering the amount of capital raised. You can raise at $80M while limiting the raise to $20M. This is also 20% dilution. The only difference between the two deal structures is $5M on your balance sheet. The point? Valuation matters, obviously. But it’s only one of the variables. You can control the impact of valuation by adjusting the investment amount.

You want a partner that has enough capital to ideally support you through your next few rounds, and ultimately, deliver enough value to scale your business in meaningful ways beyond a sky-high valuation or fundraising amount.

Have conviction in what a new investor can do to add value.

This means two things. Firstly, what does the investor’s investment horizon look like? Do they have the capital and patience to be able to support you long-term? Secondly, how will the investor work with you and your team? It’s critical to know the skillset of your lead investor and ensure that they understand your industry, business, and goals for the years to come.

Besides the financial support of your investor, different firms will have different levels of deeper support available. At Insight, for example, there is a large team set up to support each individual portfolio company, streamlined through a portfolio management function. This ensures impactful, personalized support is delivered when and where it is needed most for each portfolio company.

Most CEOs and founders who choose to work with Insight are particularly excited by having access to Insight Onsite, a team of more than 130 of the software industry’s best operators, dedicated to supporting portfolio companies as they scale up. Understanding what resources different investors have available to you will help you strategically map out your board and partners to best support you at your stage of growth.

Select an investor with a network you can leverage through your journey.

Investors can be incredibly valuable partners and bring a unique perspective to the boardroom. However, being a CEO (or another C-Suite role) at a growing business in today’s climate can be an intimidating and lonely job. Insight’s portfolio of 600+ companies provides CEOs with an unparalleled peer network to lean on and learn from. Having a pool of people who are in your shoes and navigating the same challenges can be one of the most transformational assets for CEOs when building their business.

Insight’s portfolio experience programming is one of the most robust in the industry, made possible because of the global breadth of the portfolio. In 2022 alone, executives accessed nearly 80 intimate digital roundtables and webinars, and over 30 in-person events. Many of Insight’s CEOs choose to participate in the MINDSET CEO Summits, where, alongside their peers, they’re able to dive deep into the leadership and operational challenges they’re facing today and walk away with trusted advice on what to do next. Insight’s portfolio events are all designed to forge strategic connections and actionable tactics.

Raising money can be a challenging process, especially in 2023. But prepared with the proper guidance and expectations, finding the right partner can be transformational to the future of your business.

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Disclaimer – Please note that this guidance is not legal or tax advice.

4 Reasons Founders Should Bookmark the New Insight Website

With more than 25 years of experience, Insight has established a top-tier position in software investing through times of market turbulence, a global pandemic, political unrest, and multiple tech hype cycles. Coming off a strong 2022, we’re excited to tell our story with a completely new website. The new site is a testament to the expertise of Insight’s team and our dedication to being the best partner to software companies at every stage of growth.

Here are the four useful things founders should bookmark on the new site:

Sectors: Powerful insight into the market
Onsite: Insight’s secret engine for scale
Stories: The journey from startup to ScaleUp
Ideas hub: More than a blog

Sectors: Powerful insight into the market

Sector pages offer a look into the pulse of the market as Insight sees it. These new sector pages showcase how we’re tracking a space, how much we’ve invested in the sector, and our most recent investments. This data is updated regularly, so be sure to bookmark sectors of interest and check back frequently.

In this section, you can find:

How much Insight has invested in a particular sector
How many companies we have invested in within the space
Thoughts from our investors on the space and what we’re looking for
How many companies Insight is tracking in the space
Our recent investments

For example, you can see from our AI/ML sector page that (at the time of writing) Insight has invested $4.7B across 104 companies in this space, tracking over 13,612 companies since 2016.

With our expansive network of buyers, builders, and talent, founders should bookmark their sector’s page to stay up to date on Insight’s investment activity in the space.

Onsite: Insight’s secret engine for scale

As an investor, Insight’s responsibility is to help our portfolio companies grow and scale. We believe what sets Insight apart from other investors is our team of 130+ operators in sales/customer success, marketing, product/tech, and talent. The Onsite team provides operational expertise to accelerate our founders’ vision. See examples of the specific engagements our Onsite team has made in our sectors pages, or click into the team page to browse Onsite leadership and get a sense of the expertise they offer.

Insight Onsite engagement

Stories: The journey from startup to ScaleUp

There’s a reason our portfolio stories are featured at the very top of our homepage. Insight is a dedicated partner at every stage of ScaleUp growth. Our new homepage is focused on telling these success stories to celebrate our portfolio and inspire the next generation of founders.

Monday.com IPO

For example, from Insight’s homepage, you can read the story of our portfolio company monday.com. Beginning with Insight’s investment in series B, advising with a company rebranding and creation of a successful channel partners program through Onsite expertise, and participating in their series C fundraising round. In mid-2021, the partnership and hard work paid off as Insight supported monday.com through a successful IPO.

There’s a reason founders partner with Insight — we’re committed to doing the hard work required to scale a company, and we’re equally committed to celebrating success.

Ideas hub: More than a blog

Just by reading this, you have discovered our new ideas hub. In this section, you’ll find curated content on the growth strategies, benchmarking data, industry insights, and stories that founders and leaders need. Bookmark this page as our team publishes exclusive ScaleUp reports and industry data on the topics data ScaleUps need to be successful throughout the year. Prefer to get this content in your inbox? Sign up for our newsletter, Field Notes, at the bottom of this page.

With more than two decades of investing experience, Insight’s team has learned the patterns that we believe can identify winners. With our new website, any founder can take advantage of this expertise and knowledge.