Glasswing Ventures’s newest partner is a talent the firm has been nurturing since she came to the organization as an associate in 2019.
In the four years since Kleida Martiro joined Glasswing Ventures, she has been promoted twice to senior associate and principal. Thursday, it was announced that she has taken on the role of partner in the firm that invests in startups applying AI and other frontier technologies to enterprise and cybersecurity markets.
In her roles at Glasswing, Martiro has worked on deal sourcing, execution and board governance. The firm said she has played a key role in finding the most promising early-stage AI companies.
Recently, Martiro led the $3.4 million financing round in Retrocausal. The Washington-based company provides AI-driven quality assurance systems for manufacturing professionals. Martiro serves as director on Retrocausal’s board, as well as serving as a board observer in six Glasswing portfolio companies.
The firm said as a board observer she has introduced revenue-generating customers and follow-on investors to these startups, resulting in additional financing rounds. Martiro also has led due diligence for more than 20 pre-seed and seed-stage companies, eight of which are now Glasswing portfolio companies.
“With her strong domain expertise in data science and unrelenting drive to stay on the cutting edge, Kleida is a domain expert on generative AI, and Large Language Models (LLMs), and AI more broadly,” Rick Grinnell, founder and managing partner at Glasswing Ventures, said in a statement. “As a result, she has become one of the most recognized VCs focused on AI. I look forward to continuing to work with Kleida as a partner as she invests in the most promising early-stage companies.”
The firm has invested in Boston-based companies, including Labviva’s recent Series A. Last September, Glasswing said it closed an oversubscribed $158 million Fund II. At the time it had already deployed five investments from the new fund.
Martiro is also a mentor at the Numa, Forum and MassChallenge incubators and leads Glasswing Ignite, a cross-university VC educational program that aims to support the next generation of VCs, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds. Martiro recently placed ten students in full-time positions in the startup and VC community.
Prior to joining Glasswing, Martiro was head of data science at SocialFlow and an analyst at Digitas. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College and received her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.
Sign up for The Beat, BostInno’s free daily innovation newsletter from BostInno reporter Hannah Green. See past examples here.
