UIN bets banks pay per engagement outcome: US$2M seed after US$1M run rate
Ex-n1u founders built BehaviorOS, an API that turns app usage into billed outcomes for banks; US$2M seed, 10 clients reaching 80M users.
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2,072 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDHeygo bets an AI snowboard coach built on boot sensors becomes consumer hardware
Ex-ByteDance, DJI and Tencent staff built boot-mounted sensors plus AI that coach snowboarders in real time; Thick Snow led a multi-million-dollar angel.
Read the caseDavit bets Mac devs want a native Apple-containers UI: Show HN 389 pts, free MIT
A solo dev's SwiftUI app runs Linux containers on Apple's own engine without Docker Desktop — no Electron, no license, free, MIT; Show HN: 389 pts.
Read the caseLekondo bets what people wear, not buy, powers fashion AI; 100k users in 8 months
NY fashion app Lekondo turns daily outfit posts into a taste dataset; >100,000 users across 50+ countries since its January 2026 launch, ~$3M seed.
Read the caseSerif's no-subscription Affinity bet paid off with a hundreds-of-millions Canva exit
UK firm Serif, founded 1987, sold pro design tools at one-time prices when Adobe went subscription; Canva paid 'several hundred million pounds' in 2024.
Read the caseAudiomass: audio editing in the browser, no install — two HN front-page hits
A 65KB open-source web editor that waited six years for its second act: multitrack shipped in 2026 and hit 553 HN points, after 1,011 in 2020
Read the caseDreamoo's Xiaohongshu bet: viral post validates a dream app, then an exit
Post-2000 founder Sun Donglai proved demand for an AI dream app with one Xiaohongshu post (200k+ views), reached 3,000 users in a month, then sold the company.
Read the caseBrocker Bus Studio's dumpling game: 7.5M downloads in 18 days on a toy wave
A Vietnamese ASMR-casual studio rode the viral Mystery Dumpling toy to a Google Play hit: 5M+ downloads in two weeks, 7.5M by day 18.
Read the caseXteink: phone-back e-paper bet nets ¥100M+ across five rounds
Xteink sells 70g magnetic e-paper 'second screens' for phone backs, co-created on Xiaohongshu — ¥100M+ in five rounds, six-figure monthly sales by Aug 2026.
Read the caseInfiniMind bets enterprises will mine unviewed video; $5.8M seed from UTEC
Ex-Google Japan duo build no-code infrastructure that turns PB-scale 'dark' video into queryable data; TV Pulse is live, DeepFrame ships 2026.
Read the caseRepodo bets AI-native audit can unseat manual grind: Lunar founders raise €8.2M
Ex-Lunar CEO, CFO and CPO plus an auditor launch Repodo, Denmark's first AI-native audit firm for SMBs, with an €8.2M pre-seed.
Read the caseMoMo: Vietnam's wallet-to-super-app bet draws a $3B buyout offer
Vietnam's biggest e-wallet turned profitable in 2024; by June 2026 investors were circling up to 50% of MoMo at up to a $3B valuation.
Read the caseGetaround's Airbnb-for-cars bet: US wind-down in 2025, dissolution in 2026
SF car-sharing pioneer raised $750M+, SPAC'd in 2022, wound down US operations in Feb 2025, then dissolved after selling Europe.
Read the caseGalgo's all-in motorcycle bet pays off: $400M lent, Uber invests for LatAm drivers
Chile's Galgo pivoted from migrant loans to financing work motorcycles at scale; Uber's August 2026 investment backs its $500M revenue goal.
Read the caseFuzzi: ¥1.2M-crowdfunded wooden fish grows into Xiaohongshu AI pet
Two friends made a ¥118 NFC wooden-fish toy into a Xiaohongshu hit: ¥1.22M crowdfund, ~¥600k store sales, then AI-pet features with MBTI personalities.
Read the caseSonic Fire Tech bets infrasound can replace sprinklers; $15M seed
Cleveland startup uses ~20 Hz infrasound to snuff fires in seconds, no water or cleanup; $3.5M seed Oct 2025, $15M total by Aug 2026.
Read the caseHupo's AI sales-coaching pivot lands HSBC/Prudential and a DST-led $10M round
Singapore's Hupo pivoted from a wellness app to AI sales coaching for banks and insurers, landing HSBC/Prudential and a DST-led $10M round.
Read the caseFika Jobs bets AI-interviewed video profiles replace resumes; $4M pre-seed, 100+ waitlist
Stockholm brothers Jakob and Alexander Dubois raised $4M so candidates build reusable AI-interviewed video profiles and employers pay 10% only on hire.
Read the caseTurno's bet: finance used electric three-wheelers for India's drivers — $28M by Dec 2025
Ex-Zoomcar executives build a marketplace for used commercial EVs with in-house loans and battery-value guarantees; ~$28M raised since 2022.
Read the caseStoryReel: AI short-drama app surges to #6 on the US App Store months after launch
Bets AI-generated short dramas plus heavy paid UA can out-chart live-action rivals in the US; #4 entertainment 2026-07-21, #6 free overall 2026-08-19.
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