Latest news with #Proxi
Miami Herald
2 days ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Helios Secures $4M Seed Round to Build First AI-Native Operating System for Public Policy Professionals
Agentic AI platform built for government interaction gives policy and legal teams leverage to move faster, stay ahead of the compliance curve, and outmaneuver red tape. NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / July 11, 2025 / Helios, a technology company building the first AI-native operating system for public policy professionals, today announced that it has raised $4 million in seed funding led by Unusual Ventures, with participation from Founders Inc., Alumni Ventures and a select group of strategic angel investors. The company is gaining early traction in a U.S. market with $10B+ in annual software & lobbying spend. It is working to reshape how private entities and government agencies navigate policy and regulatory challenges, with billions already under management by early adopters. "Policy, compliance, and regulatory affairs professionals shouldn't be stuck playing defense - constantly reacting to changes they didn't see coming," said Joe Scheidler, CEO & Co-Founder. "We built Proxi to change that. In a world where one missed signal can cost millions or derail strategy, Proxi gives public policy and compliance intelligence teams the clarity, speed, and leverage to shape outcomes instead of getting blindsided by them." Proxi is the first AI-native OS purpose-built for public policy, regulatory affairs, legal, compliance, and government teams. It replaces the patchwork of tools these professionals rely on to navigate legislative change, manage public-private relationships, and respond to shifting regulatory demands. Whether in the private sector or across federal, state, and local governments - Proxi enables faster, more strategic decision-making in environments where the cost of delay or misalignment is measured in lost contract opportunities, failed policy, or reputational risk. The consequences aren't just regulatory-they're existential. The Proxi platform: (i) delivers instant answers and strategic recommendations based on live federal and subnational legislative and regulatory activity, (ii) drafts memos, filings, and policy documents with built-in editing and team collaboration, (iii) parses long-form bills, reports, and filings into structured insights and risk alerts, (iv) centralizes all relevant policy and regulatory data for team-wide access and historical context, and (v) tracks government relationships, meeting notes, and stakeholder engagement-all in a secure, AI-powered workspace. By integrating these core functions in a single secure system, Proxi replaces manual, fragmented processes with the speed, foresight, and precision modern institutions demand. Helios's founding team - Joe Scheidler (CEO), Joseph Farsakh (President), and Brandon Smith (CTO) - brings together experience from the White House, State Department, Microsoft, USAID, Datadog, and King & Spalding, bridging deep public sector insight with world-class technical execution. "We are excited to back the talented founding team at Helios as they leverage AI to reshape how policy professionals drive critical strategy and growth within their organizations," said Lars Albright, General Partner at Unusual Ventures. "As regulations continue to evolve rapidly and grow increasingly complex, modern tools that enable enterprises not only to stay informed, but also to respond swiftly and strategically, are more essential than ever." More than 100 public policy professionals, including Fortune 500 companies; federal, state, and local regulatory bodies; consultancies; and top lobbying firms have joined Helios' rapidly growing waitlist. The funding will accelerate product development, team expansion, and go-to-market efforts. To learn more, visit ABOUT HELIOS: Helios is building the first AI-native operating system for government interaction, empowering public policy, legal, and compliance professionals with end-to-end automation, secure AI agents, and precision tooling. Headquartered in New York City with a presence in Washington, D.C. and California, Helios is on a mission to modernize how institutions engage with government at every level. Learn more at MEDIA CONTACT: Nina Pfister, MAG PR at nina@ ### SOURCE: Helios
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Helios wants to be the AI operating system for public policy professionals
When OpenAI was having its ChatGPT moment in 2022, Joe Scheidler, co-founder and CEO of Helios, was tackling a different kind of challenge: Helping build the White House's newly authorized cybersecurity office and navigating the complexities of public-private coordination on cyber policies. His current co-founder, Joseph Farsakh, was also at the State Department, working on Yemen Houthi peace negotiations. The two overlapped in national security discussions and started trading notes on how large language models might transform public policy on a day-to-day level. On the level the White House operates, critical decisions are often made using a patchwork of tools, spreadsheets, and institutional memory. The founders thought: What if there was a better way to support decision making, one that combined AI-native tools with an understanding of how public policy is decided? The answer to that question was the idea behind Helios. To make it real, the co-founders brought on Brandon Smith, a long-time acquaintance of Scheidler's and a machine learning veteran who had worked at Microsoft and Datadog, to lead the technical vision. 'Our unfair advantage is bringing a super unique blend of domain expertise, contacts, and technical expertise to a really important problem,' Scheidler told TechCrunch. Helios (not to be confused with the payroll/HR management solution, or the climate/economic forecasting product of the same name) emerged from stealth last month with $4 million in seed funding. The round was led by Unusual Ventures, with participation from Founders Inc. and Alumni Ventures, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. Helios' flagship product is Proxi, an AI-based operating system built for public policy, regulatory affairs, legal, compliance, and government teams, is still in beta. But, Scheidler says, the company is already seeing early traction with workers in federal, state, and local agencies, as well as Fortune 500 companies and startups. 'We wanted to empower all public policy, legal and compliance professionals with end-to-end automation, deploying sort of a web of secure AI agents that are trained and fine-tuned against really robust public policy data sets to support them on anything from strategic advisement to very sensitive and complex writing products, data analysis and stakeholder mapping,' he said. Proxi has four core features. The first is dubbed 'Consult,' and Scheidler describes it as a 'conversational AI agent, your 24/7, always-on public policy team member who is constantly scanning the legislative and regulatory environment.' Before they begin, customers tell Proxi about themselves, their work, their portfolio, their focus and objectives. The agents then surface key information to the user every time they log on. In a way, Consult is similar to another software platform by Hence, which uses AI to help organizations monitor geopolitical and business risk. Proxi's second feature is called 'Scribe.' This is a collaborative AI editing and writing tool that helps policy professionals turn their soundboarding sessions with Consult into memos, filings and policy documents. Then there's 'Decipher,' a large-scale data analysis tool that helps users parse long-form bills, reports and filings, and turn them into structured insights and risk alerts. 'That's a lot of what I spent my time doing at the State Department when I would have far preferred to just be on the Hill, building relationships with people who are actually making draft amendments and provisions,' Scheidler said. Finally, Proxi offers a CRM (customer relationship management) tool that helps people visually map out their stakeholder environment and track their interaction history, including meeting notes. It's an all-in-one offering, Scheidler said, noting that Helios uses top encryption standards for federal clients, and is currently working through compliance audits. Helios plans to use the seed funding to flesh out its product and engineering team, with a focus on finding the right tech talent. Rather than rushing to monetize quickly, Scheidler says the startup is focusing on building long-term business relationships and collecting meticulous feedback from early beta users. 'Our goal in five to seven years from now is for Helios to be completely synonymous with all government public and private interaction,' he added. That may mean barrelling past short-term competition like Bloomberg Government and Fiscal Note Forum to challenge longer-term rivals like Palantir, OpenGov and Civica, the co-founder said. 'Palantir just surpassed a $300 billion market cap,' Scheidler said. 'We think there's a lot of room to play in this space over time.'
Chicago Tribune
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Restaurant news: Proxi evolves with coastal Asian focus in the West Loop
Proxi, the Michelin Bib Gourmand global street food-inspired restaurant open in the West Loop since 2017, has evolved with a new coastal Asian focus. The sibling to Sepia, the Michelin-starred restaurant next door, debuted the new menu April 16. Chef Andrew Zimmerman owns both award-winning restaurants with managing partner Emmanuel Nony. The evolution is a culmination of the journeys of Zimmerman, Nony and chef de cuisine Jennifer Kim. Kim was the chef and owner of the creative Korean American restaurant Passerotto and seafood deli Snaggletooth before joining Proxi in 2023. 'When I started here two years ago, I was just so enthralled by what they were doing here,' said Kim, who uses the pronoun they. 'I've always looked up to chef Andrew.' Focusing the restaurant's menu on the things that interest the trio, they added, gives more clarification to guests on exactly what they're doing. What's the Korean American chef de cuisine's favorite part of the new menu? 'I'm always just gonna go to the raw section,' said Kim, laughing. 'Because I love making raw, like, hwe.' Hwe is a Korean raw seafood dish similar to Japanese sashimi. Proxi has expanded its raw and chilled section, now featuring the chef's sliced hiramasa crudo with coconut milk, grapefruit and Vietnamese cilantro, or rau ram. But the menu kept a couple of fan favorite dishes, Kim said, that already fit within the framework of coastal Asian, including the wagyu beef cheek in panang curry with coconut sticky rice and peanuts. 'If there's a little bit left in the pot at the end of the night, that's what everyone wants,' they said. ''Oh, I just want that last spoonful.'' Proxi has gradually introduced changes but waited to unveil its most dramatic dish when it launched the new menu: a seafood platter with oysters, a scallop tartare and poached blue prawn. You can also add an uni shooter and king crab legs. But half the hot line at Proxi is all live fire, said the chef, with a wood fire grill and a Josper charcoal oven. 'If we look at some of the coastal Asian countries, like, how do they utilize live fire? What is their practice with it? And what's the significance?' Kim said. 'Those are things that we want to be able to incorporate into the menu.' They noted the wood-fired 14-ounce wagyu New York strip steak as a favorite, served with a signature sauce (ssamjang butter, soy-black garlic jus, miso hollandaise, Sichuan 'salsa verde') plus the option to order more, including a Thai jumbo lump crab 'Oscar' topping. The Josper oven also will cook the coal-roasted scallops served with a Thai yellow curry and an herb salad, as well as smoked mushrooms, grown by Four Star Mushrooms in West Town. 'The edges are crispitized nicely,' Kim said of the mushroom dish. Desserts were created by Erin Kobler, who's also the executive pastry chef for Sepia. But the popular green curry banana split, which will stay on the menu, was created by Zimmerman. One new sweet they're especially excited about is Kobler's baba au soju, said Kim, a riff on baba au rhum, the classic airy cake traditionally soaked with rum syrup. Look for barley soju, and a tableside flaming waterfall presentation. The bar team has expanded non-alcoholic drink options and added new cocktails, including their Oribu No Eda, aka freezer olive martini. 'It does not taste like a martini at all,' Kim said. Their cocktail uses clarified umeboshi liquid from the Japanese salted and fermented plums. The drink is refreshing and well-balanced, said the chef, something they would want to start their meal with. When Kim closed Passerotto in October 2020, in part because of the pandemic, the chef didn't think they would ever return to restaurants. 'It would just really have to be a very specific type of environment,' Kim said. 'And I feel very fortunate that I'm able to work here with Andrew.' Zimmerman is a chef and owner, they added, who treats people with respect and kindness. 'And tons and tons of room for collaboration,' said the chef de cuisine. 'I think there's no recipe for success, other than just being a good person, which sounds silly, and just being a really good chef.' 565 W. Randolph St., 312-466-1950, More new openings, in alphabetical order: 3LP & Seoul Taco Asian restaurant entrepreneurs and friends Henry Cai aka Fat Head Henry and David Choi have collaborated on a new location, bringing their creative Chinese American and Korean American food together. 3LP (formerly 3 Little Pigs Chi) & Seoul Taco dropped April 4 in Hyde Park. Get 3LP's Italian beef-inspired original hot pot beef sandwich, Seoul Taco's namesake favorite with bulgogi and the collab K.F.C. sandwich with crispy fried chicken dipped in gochujang honey sauce plus kimchi slaw. 1321 E. 57th St.; 773-891-2266; Deere Park Chef and partner Todd Stein (Sophia Steak, Pomeroy) has transformed a North Shore restaurant into an American comfort food brasserie with restaurateur and business partner Josh Kaplan. Deere Park kicked off April 8 in suburban Highwood. Look for roasted chicken with a fennel crust; a Samoa sundae with caramel hot fudge and toasted coconut; plus Todd's martini served with potato chips. 200 Green Bay Road, Highwood; 847-926-7319; Nadu Michelin-starred chef Sujan Sarkar (Indienne, Sifr) has opened a regional Indian restaurant. Nadu launched April 3 in Lincoln Park. The menu recommends pre-ordering one dish, 'The Special One,' a crab milagu fry from Kerala with a whole Dungeness crab cooked with Tellicherry peppercorns, tomato, shallots, garlic and spices, served with nei choru, or ghee rice. For dessert, you'll find the apricot delight from Hyderabad with vanilla sponge cake soaked in condensed milk, layered with poached apricot and whipped cream, then topped with apricot jelly and almonds; drinks feature a cocktail with clarified masala chai and whiskey. 2518 N. Lincoln Ave., 872-315-2158, Rendang Republic Chef John Avila (Minahasa) has brought an Indonesian restaurant back to Chicago with co-founder Rizal Hamdallah. Rendang Republic began service April 5 in Wrigleyville. Start with the rendang plate (featuring classic beef, chicken or jackfruit), then their Duck Inn-do hot dog with a duck hot dog by The Duck Inn, topped Indonesian Chicago style with sambal aioli, acar relish, fried shallot, cilantro, green onion and tomato, all in a poppy seed bun. 3355 N. Clark St., In reopening news: Doughboy's Chicago, home of the world-famous Spaghedough, its signature saucy and hearty spaghetti, just celebrated its reopening at a new location in the South Loop Food Company cloud kitchen on April 28. 2537 S. Wabash Ave., 773-970-6666, In closing news: Taylor's Tacos, specializing in fusion Mexican street-style and Black tacos, will close its taco shop in Little Italy on May 6, but the catering and events side of the company will remain in business, so you'll still be able to treat yourself and friends to chef and owner Taylor Mason's award-winning Sexy Crispy Shrimp tacos and more. 1512 W. Taylor St., 312-526-3903,
