📝 VC Memos (Week of Feb 6 - 12)

"Getting a formal learning disability diagnosis and proper early intervention can be the most impactful event in a person’s life... early intervention can make a 2x difference per year, and undiagnosed students are 3x times more likely not to graduate high school and 2x as likely to be jobless... Marker Learning’s vision is to make learning assessments as routine as hearing and vision tests for all children and adults."

"When you open any PDF with Macro, the reading experience becomes interactive and context-rich with hyperlinks, the way it ought to be. Each time we caught up with Macro they had more users -- law firms, asset managers, and investment banks. We talked to these users and were delighted to find many power users who exclaimed that the product had unlocked a new way for them to work. One told us that, “If you’re not already using Macro, you’re in the stone ages.”"

"How can we evaluate drugs more efficiently? But drug developers design and draft clinical trials (protocols) in MS Word that are emailed around for feedback. Today, pharmaceutical companies’ learning from prior clinical studies is limited because the data is siloed and static. Faro Health has developed a software platform with the potential to address this problem with digital infrastructure for smart clinical trials."

"Snapser are building a platform that combines the ease and speed of an off-the-shelf API and the extensibility of a custom backend while allowing the [gaming] studios to retain complete code and data ownership. Snapser accomplishes this feat by letting developers pick from a catalog of fully customizable microservices while also allowing developers to “bring your own” code, data, servers, and cloud and “Snap” them into a custom backend with a unique SDK."

"Manufacturing continues to be a focal point for development in India. For India to effectively emerge as a manufacturing hub, it will need to be equipped for competition at the global scale... Central to Magma’s mission is ensuring that India’s factories are equipped with the digital tools they need to be export ready... To date Magma has onboarded 80 factories and has plans to scale operations, teams and further build their factory stack with this funding."

"While there is currently no cure for brain ageing and dementia, there are ways to slow down its effects. One of the most powerful methods is through listening to music which stimulates sensations of nostalgia. Studies have shown that by doing so, we can oxygenate the brain and keep its circuits healthier for longer. Music Health is using this science, coupled with its proprietary AI technology, to lessen the growing $1tn strain that the global healthcare system is tackling."