Vori is a San Francisco-based SaaS company building the all-in-one operating system for independent grocery stores. Their platform, VoriOS, combines AI-powered point-of-sale, inventory management, automated ordering, pricing automation, loyalty programs, and back-office analytics into a single system — giving independent grocers the same technological leverage that Walmart and Amazon use against them. Founded in 2019 by a third-generation grocer and Stanford/Cornell engineers with backgrounds at SpaceX, Lyft, and Stripe, Vori has processed over $500 million in payments across 140+ stores in 55+ cities, and raised $50 million total including a $22M Series B in May 2026.
Folio is a B2B fintech and procure-to-pay platform built specifically for the hospitality industry, primarily hotels and their restaurants. Often described as the 'Amazon for hotels,' it unifies purchasing, invoice processing, supplier payments, inventory, and expense management into one system, using AI to automate invoice matching and surface savings. Founded in 2023 by two former Plaid colleagues and based in Durham, North Carolina, Folio raised a $14M Series A led by Thrive Capital and Construct Capital in July 2025 and powers hundreds of hotels.
Kojo is the construction industry's leading materials procurement and management platform, connecting office teams, field crews, warehouses, and vendors on a single AI-powered system. Founded in 2018 by Maria Davidson (formerly known as Agora Systems), the San Francisco-based company has powered more than 10,000 construction projects across 47 states and processes billions in annual orders for trade and self-perform general contractors.
Kevin H. Johnson is the CEO of Focal Systems, an AI-powered retail operations company deploying shelf-scanning cameras across brick-and-mortar stores worldwide. A 30-year veteran of building and scaling tech businesses, he grew Ebates forty-fold before selling it to Rakuten for $1 billion, then led Udemy as a publicly-traded company, and now applies that commercial track record to the frontier problem of putting real-time AI intelligence into every grocery aisle.
Micah Rodman is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kojo, the leading AI-powered construction procurement platform processing over $5 billion in annual materials orders for 600+ contractors across the US and Canada. A Yale alumnus who cut his teeth as a manager on Ray Dalio's team at Bridgewater Associates, Rodman co-founded Kojo in 2018 to digitize the paper-and-phone world of construction materials procurement. He transitioned from COO to CEO after founding CEO Maria Davidson stepped back, steering the company through a $94M fundraise and partnerships with industry giants like Wesco International.
Wiley Jones is the Co-Founder and CEO of DOSS, a San Francisco-based AI-native operations cloud for physical goods companies. A mechanical engineering graduate of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Wiley spent his early career at Sprite Robotics in China, then at Verkada and Athelas before co-founding DOSS in 2022 with Arnav Mishra. DOSS has raised $73M in total funding including a $55M Series B in March 2026, positioning itself as the inventory and supply chain intelligence layer for modern ERP stacks.
Hypersonix is an agentic AI platform purpose-built for retail and eCommerce profitability. Its flagship product, ProfitGPT, gives merchants autonomous decision-making across pricing, promotions, forecasting, and inventory - replacing weeks of analyst work with minutes of AI-driven insight. With 5M+ SKUs optimized and 100K+ daily autonomous pricing decisions, Hypersonix helps retailers like LVMH, Woodman's Market, and Rogers Sporting Goods capture margin lift of 10-12% within 90 days.
Brandon Hill is the co-founder and CEO of Vori, a San Francisco-based B2B operating system for the grocery industry. A Stanford graduate and Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Hill grew up surrounded by grocery — his grandparents ran a small store in Oklahoma and his parents spent 40+ years in the industry. He channeled that heritage into Vori, which he co-founded in 2019 with Tre Kirkman and Robert Pinkerton to modernize the technology stack powering America's independent and regional supermarkets. Vori's AI-powered platform, VoriOS, handles point-of-sale, inventory, pricing, supplier integration, and back-office operations for 140+ stores across 55+ cities, having processed over $500 million in payments. The company raised a $22M Series B in May 2026, bringing total funding to over $32M.
Jayant Kulkarni is the CEO and co-founder of Quartzy, the world's leading lab management platform serving over 400,000 researchers across 25,000+ organizations. A PhD-trained control systems engineer from Cornell University and alumnus of IIT Madras, Kulkarni co-founded Quartzy in 2011 after completing a Swartz Fellowship at Columbia University's Center for Theoretical Neuroscience. The company - named after the highest-scoring word in Scrabble - went through Y Combinator's Summer 2011 batch and has grown into a vertically integrated procurement and inventory platform for life sciences, raising $23 million in April 2026 from Avenue Capital Group and BroadOak Capital Partners.
Jason Knight is co-founder and CEO of Lotlinx, a VIN-specific AI platform that helps auto dealerships manage and market individual vehicles with data-driven precision. After 25+ years building and exiting private equity-backed businesses across automotive, CPG, and manufacturing, Knight co-founded Lotlinx in 2012 and formally became CEO in March 2024. Under his leadership, the company grew to $21.7M in revenue and won the 2024 AutoTech Breakthrough Award for best use of AI in automotive technology.