With markets down and tech investors skittish, it’s been a challenging year for young, venture-backed startups. These 25 represent the ones we think have the best chance of reaching a billion-dollar valuation.

Mona's intelligent monitoring solution detects anomalous behaviors in granular segments of large datasets, ensuring AI-driven processes are trustworthy and optimized

Sarah started Seek back in September 2021, and comes from a quant/data science background. Sarah started her career as an astrophysics researcher and then became a quant doing algorithmic trading at ITG. She then led the quant efforts at two startups (Predata and Edison, both acquired by unicorns) as well as the consumer data team at Citadel’s Ashler Capital. Sarah has B.A./B.S. degrees in Astrophysics and Business Economics from UCLA, and an MFin degree from Princeton.

PITCHBOOK: After two decades inside Renaissance Technologies, the legendary quantitative hedge fund founded by James Simons, David Magerman was ready for something different.

Be open with your employees about how data is being used. People don’t like to be manipulated by tools or management. A few years ago, we looked at a startup that was using data generated by work tools, like email, Slack, and other communication tools, to evaluate how employees were collaborating. They planned to deploy this tool to help managers and human resources departments identify employees that weren’t integrating with their teams, weren’t being managed well, and might be likely to want to leave their jobs.

ARMONK, N.Y., July 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced it has acquired Databand.ai, a leading provider of data observability software that helps organizations fix issues with their data, including errors, pipeline failures and poor quality — before it impacts their bottom-line. Today's news further …

James Dirksen is co-founder and CEO of DeepSurface Security, the first risk-based vulnerability management platform that allows cybersecurity teams to automate the process of analyzing and prioritizing vulnerabilities. A serial entrepreneur and accomplished executive, James brings a unique blend of leadership in the private and public companies to DeepSurface.

The startup Konnecto has developed a system that will help marketing teams understand exactly what they need to do, rather than making them guess

THE MODERN CFO PODCAST: Renowned computer scientist, investor, and current co-founder of Differential Ventures joins Andrew Seski on The Modern CFO to discuss the early intersection of computer science and investing at IBM, teaming up with Jim Simons at Renaissance, and why venture investors need to meet their founders where they are.

Cyolo, the Israeli creator of the original Zero Trust Network Access 2.0 solution for IT and OT, announced today the completion of a $60 million Series B round led by National Grid Partners, with participation from existing investors Glilot Capital Partners, Flint Capital, Differential Ventures, and Merlin Ventures.

Brett Whitsitt brings a lot of experience to his role, built on a foundation of servant leadership & passion for National Security. As a SEAL Officer, having led troops in combat during 4 deployments or directing special operations activity across 12 countries in Europe, he has deep knowledge of the strategic, operational, and tactical requirements across military and emergency response segments. After service, he earned a Wharton MBA while working at J.P. Morgan in the Leveraged Finance Group. His military and business experience fortify the firm’s position to deliver results and exceed expectations.

Our guest today is Nick Adams, a co-founder and managing partner at Differential Ventures. We chat about the definition of AI, Nick's skepticism of some AI concepts, AI's effect on employment, which jobs cannot be automated, and existential risk from AI.

Zeeshan Zia is the CEO at Retrocausal, a Seattle-based company that builds computer vision software focused on improving manual assembly work in manufacturing. Before founding Retrocausal, Zeeshan worked as a scientist and shipped multiple AI-first products at Microsoft, NEC, and Qualcomm. Zeeshan holds a PhD in computer vision from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich and led a research group as a postdoctoral scientist at Imperial College London in the early 2010s, before joining the corporate world.

SUPPLY CHAIN BRAIN: Over the past few decades, globalization has improved the efficiency of our economic system. Goods, labor, natural resources and even services are now sourced from every corner of the world, and delivered nearly anywhere at lightning speed.

CRUNCHBASE: By nearly every measure, 2021 was an astounding year for venture capital and tech startups. While VC mega rounds, massive IPOs and SPACs may have dominated the headlines, tech M&A transactions increased by more than 30 percent from 2020 and deal value increased more than 50 percent to nearly $900 billion.

Retrocausal, a growing leader in AI-driven quality assurance systems for manufacturing professionals, today announced it has secured $3.4 Million in new funding. The round was led by Glasswing Ventures and Differential Ventures, along with major investors, Argon Ventures, Ascend Ventures Vietnam, Hypertherm

DeepSurface, the award-winning, automated risk analysis and prioritization company, announced that it raised $4.5 million in a seed funding round. The funding round was led by Differential Ventures, an artificial intelligence and cyber security seed venture fund. Key investors include Osage Venture Partners, Ginossar Ventures and Peninsula Ventures.

VENTUREBEAT: Have you ever had one of those creepy experiences where you’re talking about something — a product or service like skinny jeans or car rentals — and then ads start showing up on Amazon, Google, and Facebook related to your conversation? No, big tech isn’t listening to you, or at least not all the time. You might not realize it, but your communications often leave trails of breadcrumbs behind — in your email, search history, credit card purchases, and other places within the digital universe. Whether its third-party cookies or data sharing arrangements between technology companies, it’s effortless for advertisers and ecommerce sites to design targeted ads eerily relevant to your day-to-day life.

Elliot is the co-founder and COO of Agnostiq. Prior to Agnostiq Elliot worked at Bell Canada in various operational and strategic roles. Elliot received his MBA from the University of Toronto, where he spent the majority of his time hanging around the Creative Destruction Lab.

FORBES: The topics of unprecedented growth and consumer data privacy are two areas that will continue to have a major impact on leading brands in the year ahead. The combination of accelerated digital transformation and more stringent rules around data privacy will be at the heart of customer experience (CX) innovation in 2022 and beyond. As a result, Chief Marketing Officers are quickly morphing into Chief Growth Officers who are now tasked with driving this type of CX enhancement, via superior data architectures and tightened alignment with their respective Chief Technology Officers.