Creative Ventures

Creative Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on investing in companies at the intersection of deep tech and deep problems. The firm was founded in 2016 by Dr. Ali E. Izadi-Najafabadi and Dr. David F. Cohen, who bring decades of experience in venture capital, entrepreneurship, and scientific research.

Creative Ventures invests in companies across various industries, including robotics, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and biotechnology. They seek out disruptive technologies that have the potential to solve complex problems in areas such as healthcare, agriculture, and energy.

In addition to providing funding, Creative Ventures also offers expertise and resources to help their portfolio companies grow and succeed. The firm's team of experts includes entrepreneurs, scientists, and industry leaders who work closely with founders to provide guidance and support in areas such as business strategy, technology development, and market access.

Overall, Creative Ventures is committed to helping entrepreneurs and innovators bring their ideas to life and make a positive impact on the world.

Creative Ventures is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco, California, that specializes in investing in startups in the areas of robotics, AI, and Industry 4.0. The firm was founded in 2018 by two experienced entrepreneurs, Dr Ali Ahmadinia and Dr Roozbeh Ghaffari, with the goal of helping early-stage companies turn their innovative ideas into successful businesses.

Dr Ahmadinia and Dr Ghaffari bring a wealth of experience to Creative Ventures. Dr Ahmadinia has a PhD in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University and has held engineering and management positions at a number of leading technology companies, including Apple, Samsung, and Cisco. Dr Ghaffari has a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and has founded several successful startups, including MC10, a medical device company that raised over $150 million in venture capital funding.

Since its founding, Creative Ventures has invested in a number of promising startups in the robotics, AI, and Industry 4.0 sectors. These include:

• Veo Robotics: A company that develops advanced safety systems for industrial robots.
• Path Robotics: A company that develops autonomous welding robots for the manufacturing industry.
• Movel AI: A company that develops computer vision and AI technology for robots and drones.
• Bright Machines: A company that develops software and hardware solutions for automated manufacturing.

In addition to providing capital, Creative Ventures also provides support and guidance to its portfolio companies, helping them with everything from product development to fundraising and strategic planning. The firm's mission is to help entrepreneurs build transformative businesses that have a positive impact on society.

Today, Creative Ventures continues to be an active investor in early-stage technology startups, providing funding and guidance to help entrepreneurs bring their innovative ideas to market. The firm's investment focus remains on biotechnology, medical devices, and software, with a particular interest in companies that are developing technologies to address important societal needs.

• Deep tech focus: The company must have a deep technology focus and a defensible intellectual property that sets it apart from competitors.
• Founders: The founding team must be strong, experienced, and committed to building a successful company.
• Market: The company must have a large and growing market opportunity with the potential to disrupt existing industries.
• Traction: The company must have demonstrated market traction, such as customer adoption, revenue growth, or partnerships with key players in the industry.
• Scalability: The company must have a scalable business model with the potential for significant growth.
• Sustainability: The company must have a clear path to profitability and a plan for long-term sustainability.
• Stage: Creative Ventures invests in companies that are typically in the seed or early stage, but will also consider later-stage investments in exceptional cases.
• Geography: The company must be headquartered in the United States, with a focus on California, although they may consider investments in other regions as well.

Creative Ventures chooses carefully those companies that are focused on social well-being through technological solutions. It promotes ethical values, sustainability, and environment-friendly initiatives across four major sectors: Industrial Technology, Healthcare, Agrifood Technology and Energy Technology.

Their approach goes as follows:

• Investment Criteria. They look for early-stage companies combination of technical expertise combined with deep market or industry insight.
• Curated network. We’re a multidisciplinary team of investors and advisors who’ve started robotics companies and hospital chains, have run manufacturing businesses and managed global supply chains- we’ll get you the advice you need.
• Global Opportunities. We’ll drive partnerships, find you customers, and introduce you to collaborators.

At the core of Creative Ventures' mission is a commitment to innovation and disruption. The firm seeks out startups that are working on groundbreaking new technologies and business models and provides them with the resources and support they need to turn their ideas into successful companies. By investing in these early-stage startups, Creative Ventures aims to help shape the future of industries ranging from healthcare and finance to transportation and entertainment.

But Creative Ventures' mission is about more than just making money. The firm is also committed to creating a meaningful impact in the world. This means investing in companies that have the potential to make a positive difference in people's lives, whether that's through improving healthcare outcomes, reducing carbon emissions, or increasing access to education and opportunity. By backing startups that are working on important problems, Creative Ventures hopes to make a lasting impact on society as a whole.

The fund’s main portfolio company founders are tackling industry challenges arising from global secular trends: labor productivity, climate change, and changing demographics using cutting-edge technologies such as AI, Robotics, Synthetic Biology, Quantum Computing, and Advanced Sensing. The companies they invest into include:

• Agridata. AI for yield prediction
• Alice Technology. AI for construction scheduling
• Bleximo. Quantum computing for drug discovery
• Dishcraft. Commercial kitchen robotics
• Exo Imaging. Portable ultrasound with AI
• Lioness. Women personal health monitoring
• Sense Photonics. Advanced and affordable LiDAR
• Visolis. Carbon negative materials
• Sepion Technologies. Advanced membrane for batteries
• Vericool Packaging. Advanced and disposable cold-chain packaging
• Veerum. Digital twin for capital intensive projects
• Caper. AI enabler for shopping cart
• Path Robotics. Autonomous enabler for construction vehicles