Specter Monitor is a data-driven newsletter for investors interested in learning about the latest market trends, signals, and opportunities. Our audience includes some of the most legendary VC investors in the world. We’ll work hard to bring you actionable insights into what’s happening in today’s markets while celebrating data-driven wins and predictions. ✨
Here are this week's predictions and actionable signals.
🔮 Talents of the Week
Specter monitors real-time global talent movements to spot investment opportunities before anyone else.
🪄 Predicted: Mokhtar Bacha (US, 2022): Founder and CEO at Formal
Advantage on Latest Funding Round: 789 Days
Prev. Experience: Mokhtar Bacha previously worked at ConsenSys as a blockchain developer, becoming their youngest employee at age 17. Bacha also founded Shipl, a blockchain-based gas-relaying service, and Kantum, a startup focused on malaria diagnosis using smartphones. He participated in Y Combinator's S20 batch, gaining valuable entrepreneurial experience.
Notable Investors: Thrive Capital, Y Combinator, Abstract Ventures, Jean-Denis Greze, Alexis L., Aaron Katz, Matt MacInnis, Tido Carriero, Mathilde Collin, Charles Gorintin, Nick Sullivan, Rob Picard.
👻 Opportunity: Ashok Gudibandla (US, 2024): Founder at Stealth Startup
Prev. Experience: Prior to co-founding his stealth AI startup focused on vertical AI for e-commerce in September 2024, Ashok Gudibandla was Head of Notion India. Ashok founded and led Automate.io as CEO for 6 years, scaling it to 40,000 active business customers before its acquisition by Notion in October 2021. Prior to this success, he held product management roles at Agile CRM and was CEO and co-founder of Synovel software.
🎱 Strategic Signals
Specter analyzes the online and social activity of leading investors and industry insiders to predict upcoming funding rounds and acquisitions.
🪄 Predicted: Lean Technologies (MENA, 2019)
Advantage on Latest Funding Round: 652 Days
Description: Lean Technologies is a fintech platform offering an API that powers financial products with essential data and payments tools.
Notable Investors: Arbor Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Duquesne Family Office, General Catalyst, Saudi Venture Capital, Jeff Immelt, Michael Ovitz, Liberty City Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Jameel Investment Management Company, Raed Ventures, 500 Global, Henrique Dubugras, Peak XV Partners, Outliers Venture Capital, Human Capital, Philippe Teixeira da Mota, Shorooq Partners, Global Ventures, Fatima Gobi Ventures, HOF Capital, Olive Tree Capital, Breyer Capital, Khwarizmi Ventures, Hub71, Sanabil 500 MENA Seed Accelerator, Sequoia Capital.
👻 Opportunity: Onyx (US, 2024)
Description: Onyx is an open-source framework for building data agents that can reason about your data.
🍒 Cherry-Picked Companies
Specter tracks the performance of millions of companies and identifies the ones who are likely to increase in valuation.
🪄 Predicted: Roboflow (US, 2019)
6 Months Growth: Web: -23%; Team: 20%; Social: 20%
Description: Roboflow's developer tools enable teams to build computer vision models faster and more accurately.
Notable Investors: Amjad Masad, Google Ventures, Jeff Dean, Craft Ventures, Frontline Ventures, Mike Maples Jr, Max Altman, Quiet Capital, Greg Brockman, Joe Morrissey, Lachy Groom, DJ Patil, Cassidy Williams, Sam Altman, Harry Hurst, Jack Altman, Aston Motes, James Tamplin, Calvin French-Owen, Leore Avidar, Next Level Ventures, Kevin Liu, Elizabeth Caven, Y Combinator.
👻 Opportunity: Firecrawl (US, 2022)
Firecrawl
6 Months Growth: Web: 97%; Team: 75%; Social: 150%
Description: Firecrawl turns websites into LLM-ready data to extract.
Notable Investors: Y Combinator.
