Thync is a startup funded by Khosla Ventures, selling an electronic wearable device it claims will improve mood. [1] Its makers claim the device works by neurostimulation techniques such as TENS and tDCS.
Some trial users feel no effect while others claim benefits. [2]
One evaluator compared it to drinking an espresso accompanied by a tingle of prickly heat behind the ear. [3]
The Food and Drug Administration has declined to classify it as a medical device under their purview. [3]
Vinod Khosla is an Indian-American billionaire businessman and venture capitalist. He is a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and the founder of Khosla Ventures. Khosla made his wealth from early venture capital investments in areas such as networking, software, and alternative energy technologies. He is considered one of the most successful and influential venture capitalists.
Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneurs in over 900 ventures, including America Online, Amazon.com, Tandem Computers, Compaq, Electronic Arts, JD.com, Square, Genentech, Google, Netscape, Sun Microsystems, Nest, Palo Alto Networks, Synack, Snap, AppDynamics, and Twitter. By 2019 it had raised around $9 billion in 19 venture capital funds and four growth funds.
Khosla Ventures is an American venture capital firm founded by Vinod Khosla, focused on early-stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile, financial services, agriculture, healthcare and clean technology sectors. Some of its most successful investments include Affirm, DoorDash, Square, Impossible Foods, Instacart, and OpenAI.
Virgin Green Fund was established in 2007 to invest in companies in the renewable energy and resource efficiency sectors in the US and Europe. It closed in 2014.
Boku, Inc. is a mobile payments company that allows businesses to collect online payments through both carrier billing and mobile wallets, and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Boku utilizes mobile network operator (carrier) data for consumers online. Boku operates in over 90 countries globally, offering a bank-grade payment system.
Pierre R Lamond is a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley who has specialized in semiconductors, systems and cleantech. He was a partner at Sequoia Capital based in Menlo Park, California, from 1981 until he left to join Vinod Khosla's Khosla Ventures as General Partner in March 2009. He left Khosla Ventures in 2014 and joined Eclipse Ventures as a Partner in 2015.
Touchstone Semiconductor Inc. was a manufacturer of analog integrated circuit (IC) components for industrial control, consumer electronics, medical, telecommunications, and other industries.
Keith Rabois is an American technology executive and investor. He is a managing director at Khosla Ventures. He was an early-stage startup investor, and executive, at PayPal, LinkedIn, Slide, and Square. Rabois invested in Yelp and the Xoom Corporation prior to each company's initial public offering (IPO). For both investments he insisted on being a board of directors member.
Unitus Seed Fund (now Unitus Ventures) is a venture fund based in Bangalore and Seattle that supports early-stage tech startups with India scale and global potential. It funds early-stage Indian technology startups, primarily in the healthcare, education and financial sectors. As an impact investment fund, its focus is on startups that serve low and middle-income consumers.
DB Networks is a privately held Information Security company founded in the United States The company is headquartered in San Diego, California, and its regional offices are located in Palo Alto, California and Seattle, Washington.
Neverware Inc was a New York–based technology company and a subsidiary of Google.
Tile is an American consumer electronics company which produces tracking devices that users can attach to their belongings such as keys and backpacks. A companion mobile app for Android and iOS allows users to track the devices using Bluetooth 4.0 in order to locate lost items or to view their last detected location. The first devices were delivered in 2013. In September 2015, Tile launched a newer line of hardware that includes functionality to assist users in locating smartphones, as well as other feature upgrades. In August 2017, two new versions of the Tile were launched, the Tile Sport and Tile Style. As of 2019, Tile's hardware offerings consist of the Pro, Mate, Slim, and Sticker.
The Alchemist Accelerator is a venture-backed accelerator focused on the development of seed-stage ventures that monetize from enterprises. Alchemist's backers include Khosla Ventures, DFJ, Cisco, Siemens, GE, and Salesforce, among others. The accelerator seeds around 75 enterprise-monetizing ventures per year.
OneID was a digital security service based in Redwood City, California. OneID sold a digital identity system that claimed to provide security across all devices using public-key cryptography instead of passwords. The technology is utilized by non-profits, such as Salsa Labs, to increase the frequency and security of online donations. OneID now operates as a subsidiary program of Neustar following its acquisition in 2016.
GitLab Inc. is an open-core company that operates GitLab, a DevOps software package that can develop, secure, and operate software. GitLab includes a distributed version control based on Git, including features such as access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, and wikis for every project, as well as snippets.
Webflow, Inc. is an American company, based in San Francisco, that provides software as a service for website building and hosting. Their online visual editor platform allows users to design, build, and launch websites similar to Metaconex or Wix. According to W3Techs, Webflow is used by 0.6% of the top 10 million websites.
Tapingo was a mobile commerce application that offers advance ordering for pickup and food delivery services for college campuses. This functionality was merged into GrubHub mobile application after the acquisition.
Sherpa Capital is an American venture capital firm established in March 2013 by Shervin Pishevar and Scott Stanford. Based in San Francisco, CA, Sherpa Capital specializes in early stage and growth startups ranging from e-commerce to technology.
AliveCor is a medical device and AI company that develops ECG hardware and software compatible with consumer mobile devices to enable remote heart rhythm monitoring and detection of abnormal heart rhythms, or arrhythmias. AliveCor was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California, the United States.
Hermeus Corporation is an American startup company designing a Hypersonic airliner.