Execution signals — VentureLync telemetry
source-grounded · weekly refresh
Ship cadence
2.4/ wk
top 5% of pipeline
Reporting on-time
100%
12/12 weeks
Founder reply
14h
median · target <24h
Revenue verified
~$140k
Stripe match
Source coverage
6/ 6
GH · JR · STR · HS · ZH · GC
Integrity flags
0
clean 90 days
Revenue & burn · 12 months
Memory · Stripe + accounting reconciled
+447%YoY
MayJulSepNovJanMarMay
MRRBurnNet
Cap table · post Seed
Carta · last refreshed today
52%
founders
Founders52%—
ESOP pool14%vested 6.1%
Lead seed12%$1.2M
Angels8%$650k
Accel partner6%$480k
Syndicate5%$400k
Others3%—
Cohort retention — customer revenue retained by month
$ retention · 120%+ = expansion
128%NRR · best in cohort
| Cohort | Size | M0 | M1 | M2 | M3 | M4 | M5 | M6 | M7 | M8 | M9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2025 | $3.8k | 103 | 107 | 115 | 121 | 128 | 132 | 137 | 142 | 148 | 156 |
| Sep 2025 | $4.2k | 101 | 109 | 115 | 122 | 126 | 131 | 136 | 142 | 150 | |
| Oct 2025 | $5.1k | 103 | 109 | 116 | 120 | 125 | 130 | 136 | 144 | ||
| Nov 2025 | $6.3k | 103 | 110 | 114 | 119 | 124 | 130 | 138 | |||
| Dec 2025 | $7.8k | 104 | 108 | 113 | 118 | 124 | 132 | ||||
| Jan 2026 | $9.4k | 102 | 107 | 112 | 118 | 126 | |||||
| Feb 2026 | $10.9k | 101 | 102 | 112 | 120 | ||||||
| Mar 2026 | $12.2k | 100 | 102 | 114 | |||||||
| Apr 2026 | $13.6k | 100 | 104 | ||||||||
| May 2026 | $14.2k | 102 |
Customer concentration
top 10 · 62% · diversified
Anchor 1 (14%)Anchor 2 (11%)Tier 1 (9%)Tier 1 (7%)Tier 2 (6%)Top 6-10 (15%)Long tail (38%)
✓No customer > 15% · top 5 = 47% of revenue · two new enterprise wins moved top-tier mix to balanced.
Team — 34 people · 8 hired YTD
founders + key leads
AV
Anand Venkatesh
Co-founder · CEO · ex-OpenAI
PP
Priya Prakash
Co-founder · CTO · ex-Meta
MS
Mohan Sharma
Co-founder · COO · ex-Uber
RK
Rakesh Kumar
VP Sales · joined Jan 2026
JN
Jaya Nair
Head of Finance · joined Mar 2026
+
+ 29 more
ops 14 · eng 8 · sales 5 · g&a 2
Round history
5 rounds · 2021 → 2026
Mar 2021
Pre-seedfriends & family
$40k
$2.5M pre
Jan 2022
SeedLead VC · angels
$2.8M
$12M pre
Sep 2023
Seed+ (you)Veridian (co-lead) · syndicate
$4.5M
$18M pre
Jun 2024
Bridgeinside round · all existing
$1.5M
$25M pre
Q4 2026 (target)
Series Bin preparation · deck reviewed Apr 30
$40M target
$180M pre
Risks & watch
your notes
!
Dilution path to Series B
✓
Top customer concentration safe
!
Logistics margin sensitivity
✓
Founders aligned · no exits
✓
Competitive moat compounding
Diligence Q&A — with founder
all replied · source-linked
"How do you defend margin in tier-3 markets?"
We piggy-back on existing partner schedules — we don't own the fleet, we own the software. 22% GM contribution from tier-3 vs 18% tier-1. Attached: route-level P&L Apr.
"What happens if the largest competitor enters last-mile directly?"
They tried in 2023 and pulled back. Our data loop (2.4M deliveries) is 3× theirs. Customer stickiness = operational SLAs, not price. Multi-year MSAs signed this month prove it.
"Runway tight at 22 months · when do you raise B?"
Targeting Series B close Q4 2026. Term sheet conversations with 2 growth funds. Deck at Pulley. Want Veridian in on pro-rata — happy to carve $28-32k.
Recent activity
founder + company · 14 days
today
Settlement cleared $12k
May 27
Anchor 2 contract signed · 36mo
May 24
v3.1 shipped · pricing engine v2
May 20
Weekly report submitted · 100% on-time
May 18
Series B deck uploaded · draft v4
May 14
Hire · Jaya Nair · Head of Finance
Peer compare — ai infra
private benchmarks · 2026
| Metric | Helio Labs | Peer A (est.) | Peer B (est.) | Cohort P90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ARR | ~$140k | $1.2M | $500k | $8M |
| YoY growth | 142% | 28% | 34% | 180% |
| Gross margin | 64% | 22% | 18% | 42% |
| NRR | 128% | 104% | 108% | 115% |
| Burn / ARR | 0.54 | 2.8 | 1.9 | 0.9 |
Exit scenarios — speculative
not a forecast
Base
Series B at $180M pre · 4× paper
4.0×
Bull
Series C at $500M · strategic acq.
11×
Bear
Bridge at flat · 2027
1.5×
§Scenarios are internal only. Not shared with founder, LPs, or in any written communication. Counsel gate applies to any external framing.
Brief · v3Analyst
Helio Labs builds inference routing infrastructure for production AI applications. The product sits between an application's model client and the underlying model providers, picking the cheapest acceptable model per request based on a configured latency / cost / quality envelope. Founded January 2025; $1.8M pre-seed closed October 2025. Current ARR is low six figures, growing from a base of $0 in January 2026. Three reference customers in production, all on annual contracts. The founding team comes from Anthropic infra and Stripe payments routing.
ASKS · $4M seed at a $24M post.
ARR
~$140k, growing 22% MoM (last 3 months)
customer-providedclaim: medium
Pre-seed terms
$1.8M on a SAFE, $14M post-money cap, Oct 2025
verifiedclaim: high
Production customers
3 named: Volute, Beam Health, Stratus Cloud (existing portco)
customer-providedclaim: high
Team
2 founders + 5 engineers (3 ex-Anthropic infra, 1 ex-Stripe Connect)
third-partyclaim: high
Gross margin
Stated 68% (deck); inferred ~54% after model-provider passthrough
inferredclaim: low
Burn / runway
~$140k/mo burn, 11 months runway at current cash
customer-providedclaim: medium
Round being raised
$4.0M seed, $24M post, lead seeking
customer-providedunverified
Competition
Portkey, Helicone (proxy/observability layer); Martian Labs (closest direct comp)
third-partyclaim: medium
Signal
Sources