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. ✨
💸 Revenue Signals of the Week
Specter tracks private-company revenue and profitability as it’s reported across social posts, news, podcasts, and public filings.
OpenArt Hits $70M MRR
Canaan reports OpenArt scaled to 8M MAU and $70M+ ARR, growing revenue 7x in 2025 with a ~20-person team
Anima Hits $20M in ARR
Maggie Fitzsimmons says Anima scales from $1.5mil to $20mil ARR in two years
Marketer Hits $5M ARR
Amir F. Habhab says Marketer, an AI to automate ad creation and optimize campaigns for Shopify store hits $5M ARR
Baseten Hits $15.8M ARR
Finviz reports that Baseten has achieved a $15.8M ARR in 2025
FloQast Hits $200M in ARR
FloQast announces hitting $200M ARR in 2025, growing to 800+ employees, and opening offices all over the globe.
Get in touch to learn more.
🔮 Stealth Opportunities of the Week
Specter monitors real-time global talent movements to spot investment opportunities before anyone else.
Jeremy Arditi 🇺🇸
Tagline: Building something new in Enterprise AI
Highlights: Fortune 500 Experience, Polyglot, Prior Exit, Prior VC Backed Experience, Prior VC Backed Founder, Serial Founder
Experience:
- Founding & Executive Leadership:
Co-Founder — Stealth;
Co-Founder — HappyApps;
Co-Founder — Greenzer, Inc. - Senior Leadership (Media & Advertising):
Co-President, Chief Business Officer Americas — Teads;
Co-Chief Executive Officer — Teads;
Chief Commercial Officer — Teads;
SVP, Global Agencies & Clients — Teads; - Board & Ecosystem Leadership:
Co-Chair — Montreux Jazz Festival Miami - Finance (Early Career):
Analyst — Morgan Stanley
Education:
Georgetown University, Walsh School of Foreign Service — BSFS, Science, Technology & International Affairs (2001–2005)
Peter Butler 🇬🇧
Tagline: Working on something new
Highlights: Prior Exit, Prior VC Backed Founder, Serial Founder, Top University
Experience:
- Founding & Executive Leadership:
CEO & Co-Founder — Stealth Startup;
CEO & Co-Founder — Dishpatch;
Founder — Restaurant Tech;
Founder — Live & Let Dine Ltd - Scale-up & Corporate Leadership:
CEO, Dishpatch — Waitrose & Partners - Advisory & Consulting:
Independent Consultant — PNButler Consulting - Strategy & Finance (Early Career):
Associate — The Boston Consulting Group;
Financial Analyst (Intern) — Houlihan Lokey
Education:
University of Cambridge — BA, Economics (2006–2009)
Sir Thomas Rich’s Grammar School (1999–2006)
Zhi Huang 🇬🇧
Tagline: Product, Engineering
Highlights: Fortune 500 Experience, Prior Exit, Prior VC Backed Experience, Prior VC Backed Founder, Serial Founder, Strong Technical Background, VC Backed Experience
Experience:
Founding & Executive Leadership:
Founder — Stealth AI Startup;
Co-Founder & CTO — Posterity;
Cofounder & CTO — Gamma Innovations, Inc
Product Leadership:
Chief Product Officer — Fero
AI / Engineering Leadership:
Head of AI (fractional) — LawAdvisor Ventures;
Head of Engineering — Weav Music;
Senior Engineer — Weav Music;
Tech Mercenary — Helix Collective;
Technical Advisor — Self-employed
Finance & Enterprise Technology:
VP of Technology — Goldman Sachs;
Senior Software Engineer — Macquarie Bank
Education:
University of New South Wales — Bachelor’s Degree, Telecom Engineering & Computer Science (2000–2005)
ICMA Centre — Master’s Degree, Finance (2009–2010)
Deborah Knobelman 🇺🇸
Tagline: C-Suite Biotech Executive
Highlights: Fortune 500 Experience, Prior Exit, Prior IPO, Prior VC Backed Experience, Prior VC Backed Founder, Strong Academic Background, Top University
Experience:
Founding & Executive Leadership:
Founder & CEO — Stealth Mode Biotech;
President & Interim CEO — Kronos Bio;
Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer — Kronos Bio
Public & VC-Backed Biotech Leadership:
Chief Financial Officer & Head of Corporate Development — Senti Biosciences;
Chief Financial Officer — Senti Biosciences
Advisory & Multi-Company C-Suite Roles:
CFO | COO | CBO — Waverly BioConsulting, LLC
Business Development & Commercial Strategy:
Chief Business Officer — Ampio Pharmaceuticals;
Director, Commercial Strategy & Analytics — Pfizer
Finance & Equity Research (Early Career):
Senior Research Analyst, Biotech / Small Cap Pharma — Piper Jaffray;
Equity Research Associate, Biotech / Small Cap Pharma — JPMorgan
Education:
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine — PhD, Neuropharmacology
Duke University — BA, Chemistry
Rana Taj 🇨🇦
Tagline: Category Leader 30U30 | SoftBank-Backed Exit | Angel Investor | Building AI Powerhouses
Highlights: Fortune 500 Experience, Prior Exit, Prior VC-Backed Experience, Serial Founder, VC-Backed Experience
Experience:
Founding & Product Leadership:
Co-Founder — Fiction Pub AI;
Co-Founder — Nurmed AI
Venture Studio & Investing:
Principal — Triton Growth;
Angel Squad Member — Hustle Fund;
Member — Founders Pledge;
Member — PEF Community
Scale-up & Exit Experience:
Founder (Acquired by PlayVS, 2021) — GameSeta Esports;
Country Head, Canada — PlayVS
Engineering (Early Career):
Machine Learning Engineer — Motorola Solutions;
Electronics Engineer — Radius Security
Education:
Simon Fraser University — Bachelor’s Degree
Existing Specter users: Access the full roster here.
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🎱 Investor Signals of the Week
Specter analyzes the online and social activity of leading investors and industry insiders to predict upcoming funding rounds and acquisitions.
Archil 🔥 featured 2x in 90 days
Archil provides infinite, shareable cloud volumes for instant, accelerated data access in cloud applications.
Founders: Hunter Leath
Founded: 2024
HQ Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Zalion🔥 featured 2x in 90 days
Zalion automates procurement with AI-powered agents that cut repetitive work.
Founded: 2025
Founders: Mourad T, Clemens Komorek, Tim G.
HQ Location: Munich, Bavaria, Germany, Europe
Roadrunner🔥 featured 4x in 90 days
Roadrunner provides an AI-native CPQ that speeds up deal structuring and revenue realization for enterprise sales.
Founders: Joubin Mirzadegan, Ajay Natarajan, Eugene Shao
Founded: 2025
HQ Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Superset🔥 featured 2x in 90 days
Superset lets developers run multiple AI CLI agents in parallel on a single machine
Founders: Avi Peltz, Kiet Ho
Founded: 2026
HQ Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Ant Lab AI🔥 featured 2x in 90 days
Ant Lab AI builds resilient AI infrastructure for intelligent systems. It focuses on observability, orchestration, compliance, and reliability to support production-ready AI projects.
Founders: Jernej Strasner
Founded: 2025
HQ Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia, Europe
Existing Specter users: Access the full list here.
New to Specter? Schedule a demo and activate your complimentary trial today.
🍒 Company Opportunities of the Week
Specter tracks the performance of millions of companies and identifies the ones who are likely to increase in valuation.
Tamarind Bio (🌟 Specter – Global Rank 32)
Tamarind Bio provides web and API software for large-scale computational protein design.
Signal: Headcount Surge, Web Traffic Momentum, Social Followers Surge, Top Tier Investors
Founder: Deniz Kavi, Sherry L, Hong Meng Yam
Total Funding Raised: $14.1M
Investors: 468 Capital, Phosphor Capital, Treeo VC, Y Combinator, and Nevcap
Astral (🌟 Specter – Global Rank 60)
Astral builds developer tools for Python, including package managers (uv) and project tools (Rye).
Signal: Web Traffic Surge, Headcount Surge, Social Followers Momentum, Top Tier Investors
Total Funding Raised: $4M
Last Funding Round: Seed
Founders: Charlie Marsh
Investors: Accel, Base Case Capital, Caffeinated Capital
Superwall (🌟 Specter – Global Rank 75)
Superwall provides a platform to build and deploy mobile app paywalls quickly without app updates.
Signal: Headcount Surge, Web Traffic Momentum, Social Followers Momentum, Top Tier Investors
Founder: Jake Mor
Total Funding Raised: $6.13M
Investors: Acurio Ventures, Adjacent, FJ Labs, Shrug Capital, Weekend Fund, Y Combinator
Rumik.ai (🌟 Specter – Global Rank 113)
Rumik AI is pioneering the development of sentient AI beings that can connect with humans on a personal level.
Signal: Headcount Momentum, Web Traffic Momentum,, Social Followers Surge, App Downloads Surge, App Reviews Surge
Total Funding Raised: $6.5M
Last Funding Round: Seed
Founders: Rohan Chaudhary, Yogesh Maheshwari
Investors: Huddle (India), InfoEdge Ventures, and Elevation Capital (India)
Wafer🌟 Specter – Global Rank 160)
Wafer automates GPU engineering to find and exploit unused performance in GPU code.
Signal: Headcount Scale-up, Social Followers Surge, Top Tier Investors
Total Funding Raised: $500K
Last Funding Round: Pre Seed
Founders: Emilio Andere
Investors: Y Combinator
Existing Specter users: Access the real-time startup feed here.
New to Specter? Schedule a demo and activate your complimentary trial today.
That’s all for this edition of Specter Monitor!
Stay tuned for the next updates and feel free to share with your friends.
