SANTA MONICA, Calif. - June 23, 2026 - 1752vc announced that KINDRED — led by founder Julia Klingberg — has been named the champion of Lightning Round VIII. Four founders took the stage to deliver pitches to a panel of industry decision-makers, and after a highly competitive round, KINDRED emerged as the winner.
KINDRED is an agentic regulatory intelligence that turns medical-device data into defensible, citation-backed regulatory filings using a reasoning engine built on a lawyer-encoded regulatory graph.
"Lightning Round continues to be a place where new category leaders are discovered, and KINDRED is exactly that. Julia delivered a standout pitch, and we're excited about what they're building," said Ben Kahan, Principal at 1752vc.
The other founders who pitched
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A2A Cloud (Robert Seares) — a governed runtime for autonomous agents that adds identity, scoped permissions, and signed receipts so every agent action in production can be audited and replayed.
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Contrax AI (Day Cantave) — an AI platform purpose-built for federal DLA/DIBBS contracting that surfaces winnable solicitations, auto-compiles bids, and prices them to win.
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Prilog (Robert Markovski) — self-healing software that turns production incidents into ready-to-review fix PRs automatically, cutting hours of debugging down to minutes.
The investor-judges
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Kunal Phalak — Vice President, WestBridge Capital. Invests in early to growth-stage AI. A founder-turned-investor since 2018, focused on vertical AI, Voice AI, and enterprise automation. Wharton MBA; IIT Bombay EE.
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Zachary Betts — General Partner, Zandia Ventures. An SF Bay Area family-office investor-operator with 25+ years advising seed-to-growth startups across healthcare, medical devices, and AI, all built for measurable human and planetary impact.
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Keith Yoder — Director of Business Development and Senior Associate at Innovent Capital, the family office of serial entrepreneur Brett Markinson.
What selected startups receive
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Access to an exclusive $1M+ perks package
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Visibility across our investor, LP, and social channels
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Tactical product, pitch, and GTM feedback from leading investors
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Fast-tracked consideration for 1752 Accelerate, including a $100K investment
Lightning Round VIII was made possible with support from Ramp, Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP, and Innovent Capital Group.
About 1752vc
1752vc (formerly Pegasus Angel Accelerator) is the #1 investment and growth acceleration firm in Southern California dedicated to identifying and scaling high-potential startups. Combining strategic capital with deep industry expertise, 1752vc helps transform innovative businesses into market leaders. Headquartered in Santa Monica, the firm's team of seasoned entrepreneurs, operators, and investors brings decades of experience building and scaling successful companies.
Learn more at 1752.vc and 1752.ai.
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