Perspectives, not platitudes.

We believe that we are at an inflection point where stream processing will become the standard that powers user-facing analytics. The growing importance of the use cases enabled by stream processing is being met with solutions that are increasingly easy to adopt.

Vantage is a self-service cost visibility platform that helps businesses manage and optimize their cloud infrastructure costs. The founding team brings a nuanced understanding of modern enterprise needs related to infrastructure cost management and offers native support for service providers beyond the big three clouds.

We are thrilled to announce that we are leading an investment in Plus One Robotics as part of the Company’s $50M Series C financing. At its core, the company specializes in streamlining the movement of mixed parcels, bags, and products for logistics providers in the likes of DHL, FedEx, and MSC Industrial, many of which Plus One counts amongst its growing rolodex of customers.

No one can tell exactly what 2023 will bring, but one thing is for certain: there is a sprint to efficiency with improving burn multiples and slowing revenue growth across the board. Comparing 2022 performance with 2023 plans shows the stark reality. The slowdown in ARR Growth we saw in 2022 will result in a slowdown in GAAP Revenue Growth in 2023. At the same time, startups have tightened their belts to become more efficient.

Earlier this week I had the chance to sit down with Box CFO Dylan Smith and discuss how Box was able to dramatically improve their cost structure while continuing to innovate and grow in the face of tough competition. The learnings Dylan shared from the journey Box embarked on in 2020 are broadly applicable to the challenges tech companies are facing going into 2023.

This Is What Winning In SaaS Looks Like In 2023. A case study of Box Inc.'s sharp focus on profitability beginning in 2020, leading to over-performance in a down market.

Here's the data we're sharing with our portfolio companies as they develop 2023 annual plans.

Some high-level thoughts about how CFOs of technology companies should be thinking about their annual planning ahead of 2023.

Enter Spot AI which is making computer vision practical for underserved users in everyday businesses and industries that power the real economy. Imagine a car wash trying to understand the flow of vehicles through their facility over the course of a day. Or a warehouse operator who wants to know the moment a truck has arrived at the loading dock to begin processing materials. Or even an industrial plant or construction site where a foreman or plant leader wants to monitor safety operations more comprehensively. 
 

With the bulk of 2022 behind us, attention now turns to planning for 2023. The topic of conversation in every boardroom is the corresponding tradeoffs between growth and burn. Check out the tool that we built that helps you understand how you compare with other companies. Stay tuned as we’ll also be publishing our 2023 Whisper Numbers later this month. 

Today, Scale is leading the $14M Seed round in Loops. By using Loops’ platform, product teams can cut through the noise and focus on insights that help them maximize their KPIs. Loops proactively identifies growth opportunities, which PMs can implement to drive growth, engagement and retention targets.

We are closely following the momentum of these overlapping but distinct trends. And to track our own work and share some of the knowledge we’ve accumulated, we’re introducing the Scale Generative AI Index, a list of nearly 200 companies in the space and details about what they’re building. We’ll keep adding to this market map as our research progresses. 

A quick glossary of our Generative AI Index use case definitions

We believe that in this moment of generative AI hype, nothing is more valuable than hearing directly from entrepreneurs and product leaders building in the Generative AI space. That’s why last month we hosted a panel with a group of entrepreneurs and AI practitioners to discuss the key challenges entrepreneurs are facing when it comes to building category-defining generative AI companies.
 

Today we’re excited to unveil our new fund, Scale Venture Partners Fund VIII. This $900M fund gives us the opportunity to continue to invest in the category-defining technology companies that are being built today. We want to thank our amazing founders and investors, new and returning, for making this fund possible.