Amid a packed Demo Day with more than 160 teams presenting, a small group drew outsized attention from investors. The standouts all had one thing in common: laser focus around agentic AI, mission-critical infrastructure and real-world monetization. Here are the nine startup companies insiders said generated the most demand — and why investors liked their pitches.
Autumn
Autumn bills itself as billing rails for AI companies, it simplifies byzantine pricing structures that mesh seats, credits, usage tiers and add-ons during sales negotiations. The team says it already supports hundreds of AI apps via its open-source infrastructure, including dozens from this batch.
Why investors are interested: Usage-based pricing has dominated the world of SaaS, according to continued research from firms like OpenView and Bessemer, but implementing it cleanly on generalist processors can be a painful process. A billing debt layer for AI-native products is a well-timed wedge in a gigantic payments space dominated by Stripe.
Dedalus Labs
Dedalus Labs wants to be the “Vercel for AI agents,” doing autoscaling, load balancing, orchestration and deployment with very little code. As agentic systems transition from demos to production, the promise of abstracting grunt infrastructure away from builders is tantalizing.
Why investors care: Agentic AI is a next-wave platform shift, according to analyst houses. Tooling that cuts the distance to reliable services from idea has historically been among the most valuable — think rise of developer platforms in the days of cloud.
Design Arena
Design Arena crowdsources rankings of AI-synthesized visuals, establishing a human-in-the-loop feedback loop that forces models to generate more pleasing aesthetics. The company says it counts major AI labs among its customers.
Why investors are excited: Human feedback serves as a tide holding up breakthroughs in generative AI. A high-signal, domain-specific dataset can prove hard to come by for design quality — let alone for enterprises’ creative output
Getasap Asia
Getasap Asia is a tech-enabled distributor that promises sub–eight-hour restocking for corner stores, restaurants and supermarkets throughout Southeast Asia; it says on its website that it has millions in revenue and took funding from General Catalyst.
Why investors are paying attention: The distribution of consumer goods in the region remains fragmented, according to multiple studies by consulting firms, something that makes speed and predictability a competitive advantage. Early traction and a potential hefty valuation hint at strong conviction to digitize this vital supply chain layer.
Keystone
Keystone describes itself as an AI engineer that automates catching and fixing bugs in production. The 20-year-old founder says the company has declined a seven-figure offer to buy it and also supports customers like Lovable.
Why investors are interested: Production breaks are expensive and common, and post-deploy fixes consume developers’ time. Transforming detection and low-risk fixes automatically, with humans approving the changes, translates neatly to contemporary DevOps processes.
RealRoots
RealRoots targets friendship, not dating. Its AI matchmaker, Lisa, interviews women and then makes rounds of introductions to members who are the most compatible. The company did $782,000 last month from 9,000 paying clients,the founders say.
Why investors care: The U.S. Surgeon General has said loneliness is a public health issue. Social products that monetize real-world connection — rather than ads — seem to fit a healthier business model and we also believe there is a large unmet need here.
Solva
Solva applies automation to the drudgery of insurance claims work — drafting documents up, flagging anomalies and leakage. Ten weeks after launch, the team is posting $245,000 in annual recurring revenue.
What investors will be watching: Claims processing is a back-office cost center that can be dramatically automated, as industry analyses by firms like McKinsey have long pointed out. When Solva brings down cycle times and improper payouts, you directly enhance those combined ratios—language CFOs adore.
Perseus
Perseus is developing counter-drone mini-missiles that can be used to take down low-cost UAVs for a fraction of the price tag of today’s systems. The company has had requests to demonstrate from several U.S. military branches, it says.
Why investors care: Distant foreign clashes have illustrated just how powerful inexpensive drones can be. The Defense Department has increased its focus on counter–UAS funding priorities and affordable interceptors could become a program-of-record category.
Pingo
Pingo is an AI language tutor that prioritizes conversational fluency by enabling users to talk to a native-equivalent speaker. Founders say they’ve seen 70% monthly growth and $250,000 in monthly revenue.
Why investors have caught on: Practice speaking is still the toughest part of language learning apps. There’s an opportunity here for a low-latency, always-available partner that corrects and motivates.
Why these nine were exceptional
Combined, these teams represent three persistent themes: infrastructure for agentic AI, automation across operationally complex industries and products that map directly to consumer or defense results.
Seed-stage investors monitoring early stage markets from outlets like PitchBook and CB Insights have observed that traction and time to value take precedence over the newness.
This latter group had evidence: real customers, measurable revenue and technology aligned with where the puck is going.