JC2 Ventures

As demand for customizable, secure, and cost-effective AI solutions grows, JC2-backed Arcee AI is helping advance U.S. leadership in open-weight AI while giving enterprises greater control over how they deploy and scale the technology. In a recent Fortune feature, CEO and Co-Founder Mark McQuade discusses how Arcee developed four open-weight AI models for approximately $20 million, including its 400-billion-parameter Trinity Large model, and recently secured Series B funding at a $1 billion valuation. Read more in Fortune: https://lnkd.in/gw2ADr-e

Physical AI is moving from ideation to practical applications. JC2-backed Avathon CEO Pervinder Johar was recently featured in The Information discussing the company’s new five-year partnership with Barrick Mining Corporation’s North American business, bringing AI-powered intelligence to equipment reliability, safety, supply chain operations, and procurement across complex mining environments. As Pervinder shared, the partnership is tangible proof that Physical AI is moving beyond early industry announcements and into real-world industrial operations. For founders and operators, that shift matters: the long-term value of AI will be measured not simply by what the technology can do, but by the operational outcomes it can deliver. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gFxDJf5S

JC2-backed Reps and Founder & CEO Bhakti Vithalani shares the experiences that shaped her entrepreneurial journey, ultimately leading to the vision behind Reps: helping organizations prepare their people to succeed in an increasingly AI-driven workplace. This Bizwomen’s “In Her Own Words” feature explores that as technology transforms how work gets done, success will depend on the companies that keep people at the center of that transformation. Read the full story: https://lnkd.in/gPjv23Tj

As AI reshapes how products are built, the traditional software development life cycle is evolving into an AI-driven development life cycle and what that means for engineering leaders. For the 23rd edition of the “CIO Two Cents” blog, JC2 Ventures Partner Yvette Kanouff explores how AI is transforming development through faster coding, continuous testing and evolving engineering roles. Yvette compares the transition to teaching a teenager how to drive, the potential is significant, but progress requires guardrails, sandboxing, and supervision. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gST6cq2G

The AI race is no longer just about who builds the best model. A recent Forbes analysis highlights how this shift is fueling investment in the AI serving layer, including JC2-backed Together AI’s latest Series C milestone – underscoring the growing demand for infrastructure that helps organizations train, adapt, and deploy AI at enterprise scale. As inference and deployment emerge as critical control points, the platforms that bring AI into production are becoming just as strategic as the models themselves. Read the full analysis: https://lnkd.in/evf4Vve7

AI has made cyberattacks cheaper, faster, and more accessible than ever before. In a recent Financial Times article, JC2-backed Nile's Chief Marketing Officer, Shashi Kiran, explains how AI has lowered the barrier to entry for cybercriminals, enabling sophisticated ransomware attacks that once required nation-state resources. As AI quickly reshapes the cyber landscape, proactive security measures are critical – and organizations must evolve their cybersecurity strategy accordingly, before it’s too late. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eDv7DYEh

Did you know that customers who discover a brand through an AI recommendation are 2x as likely to abandon that brand after a single bad experience? As companies race to prove the business value of customer experience, a recent article warns that moving too quickly toward disconnected AI and CX tools could undermine the trust these companies have worked hard to build. Featuring research from JC2-backed Quantum Metric, the article explores why enterprises need a more connected approach that aligns technology with customer needs as AI reshapes the customer journey. ROI matters, but not at the expense of the customer’s experience. Explore why CX requires a more deliberate approach: https://lnkd.in/eTbt8pvw

How is AI delivering real impact – and what is overhyped? At the RAISE Summit in Paris, Nasdaq asked leaders building and deploying AI to weigh in on this question, including the CEOs of two JC2-backed #startups, Suresh Vasudevan of Clockwork Systems, Inc. and Vipul Ved Prakash of Together AI. With the current pace of AI innovation, today’s breakthroughs are quickly becoming tomorrow’s standard. Check out Suresh and Vipul’s perspectives on AI’s ability to transform society, how to navigate through the hype, and where AI will truly drive business impact: https://lnkd.in/gSDV-Nq8

The first wave of enterprise AI was defined by what models could do. The next wave will be defined by what organizations can deploy at scale. In a recent interview, JC2-backed Uniphore CEO Umesh Sachdev argues that domain-specific Small Language Models are becoming the preferred choice for enterprise AI because they deliver stronger performance for specialized tasks while reducing cost and infrastructure requirements. Combined with agentic AI fine-tuning, this approach is helping enterprises move from pilots to production. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gc2Nhhyu

Enterprise AI isn't falling short because today's models aren't capable enough. More often, the challenge is building systems that businesses can trust to be accurate outside of controlled conditions and curated datasets. JC2-backed ASAPP argues that trust is a system outcome, requiring the right context, architecture, and operational foundation to turn AI pilots into tangible business impact. As organizations continue investing in AI, the companies that will lead will focus not only on smarter models, but on building AI that enterprises can deploy with confidence and users can rely on. Check out the full article: https://lnkd.in/ga_NUWvc