Company Launch Tracker #72
Forethought founder builds AI-native productivity assistant, Ex-Waymo/Aurora/Uber PM powers Physical AI for autonomous ports, & Ex-DuPont scientist turns forestry waste into bio-based rubber
Company Launch Tracker is a real-time feed for investors, founders, and tech enthusiasts who want to spot startups the moment they launch. We leverage the technology built at Gravity to track billions of data points and surface company debuts the instant they happen. These signals include founder “I’m excited to announce…” posts, company filings, job changes, product hunt launches, and early press mentions—all stitched together into a single stream of what’s new.
In this issue of the Company Launch Tracker, here is what we will uncover:
Repeat founder who sold Forethought to Zendesk is building an AI-native personal productivity assistant
Ex-Waymo, Aurora, and Uber Self-Driving PM builds the real-time Physical AI intelligence layer for autonomous port and maritime operations
Ex-DuPont senior scientist is developing bio-based rubber alternatives from European forestry waste
Ex-Square Capital and Bond CTO launches an open, agentic-AI-native alternative to Google and Apple Photos
And more…
Here’s the rundown of new company activity… 🚀🚀🚀
🚀Recent Company Launches
Early visibility into the launches most people won’t hear about until months later.
Deon Nicholas - Co-Founder & CEO at Espa Labs
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Former FAANG, Prior Exit
Prior Experience: CEO & Co-Founder at Forethought (acquired), Software Engineer at Dropbox, Software Engineer at Pure Storage, Software Engineering Intern at Facebook
Espa Labs is building an AI-native productivity assistant that manages email, calendars, contacts, and tasks.
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Industry: Artificial Intelligence, Productivity Software | Team Size: 4
Key Investors: Village Global, Neo, SV Angel, and angels including Adam D'Angelo and Tekedra Mawakana
Esra Alinca - Co-Founder & CEO at Anufy
FounderDNA: Technical Founder
Prior Experience: Risk Manager at ASML, Cyber Security Specialist at Siemens, KPMG & Deloitte, Penetration Tester at Intertech
Anufy is a cybersecurity company building Horusion®, an exposure intelligence platform that gives organizations continuous outside-in visibility into their attack surface, exposed identities, and brand presence across open and dark web sources.
HQ: Netherlands
Industry: Cybersecurity, Enterprise SaaS | Team Size: 2
Erkan Tas - Founder & CEO at KEKOVA
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Masters Degree, Former FAANG, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Product Leader at Waymo, Staff Senior PM at Aurora, Sr. PM at Uber Self-Driving, Sr. PM at Amazon Web Services, Sr. PM at Allen Institute for AI
Connect on: LinkedIn
KEKOVA is building a real-time Physical AI system for complex port operations, integrating live sensor streams, dynamic world models, and a maritime-native foundation model to enable progressively autonomous vessels and port equipment.
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Industry: Physical AI, Maritime Technology
Putri Karunia - Founder & Design Engineer at Lunagraph
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Co-Founder & CTO/CPO at Typedream (YC W20), Co-Founder & CTO at Cotter, Senior Software Engineer at beehiiv, Software Engineer at Yelp
Lunagraph is a visual design canvas that writes code, built for designers, AI agents, engineers, and cross-functional teams to collaborate in one tool.
HQ: San Francisco, California, United States
Industry: Developer Tools, Design Software
Luca Menozzi - Co-Founder at Lumius
FounderDNA: Doctorate Degree, Masters Degree, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: PhD & MS (Biomedical/Medical Engineering) at Duke University, Technical Intern at ARA CORE3D Project
Lumius develops intelligent and affordable 3D ultrasound solutions, starting with vascular access and targeting a universal ultrasound platform for broad clinical and non-clinical adoption (backed by Y Combinator P26).
HQ: United States
Industry: MedTech, Medical Devices | Team Size: 6
Ted Mao - Founder at Gumnut AI
FounderDNA: Serial Founder, Technical Founder, Top 10 University
Prior Experience: Principal, Product & Engineering at The General Partnership, VP Engineering & CTO at Bond, Engineering Lead at Square Capital, Advisor at AtoB
Gumnut AI is an open, API-first alternative to Google and Apple Photos that enables agentic AI tools to understand and interact with personal photo and video libraries at scale.
HQ: United States
Industry: Artificial Intelligence, Consumer Tech
Luis V. - CEO & Co-Founder at Greewave
FounderDNA: Technical Founder, Doctorate Degree, Masters Degree
Prior Experience: PhD (Materials Chemistry) at Stockholm University, Senior Scientist at DuPont, CTO at Biofiber Tech Sweden, R&D Intern at Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research
Greewave develops bio-based rubber alternatives from European forestry and citrus waste, producing drop-in latex materials that integrate with existing rubber manufacturing infrastructure to reduce dependency on imported natural rubber and petroleum-based synthetics.
HQ: Sweden
Industry: CleanTech, Advanced Materials | Team Size: 3
Stay strapped in,
Drake
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The Espa Labs profile — previous exit to Zendesk, now building an AI-native productivity assistant for email, calendar, and contacts — is the clearest example of a pattern worth tracking: experienced founders who know exactly where enterprise software is slow are rebuilding it with AI on the coordination layer. Prior exit gives them distribution leverage and the ability to size the enterprise problem accurately. At theaifounder.substack.com I cover exactly this segment. Are you seeing a pattern in which P26-batch founders come from product backgrounds vs. technical backgrounds, and does that background seem to correlate with how they think about AI as an architectural choice vs. a feature?