Hands-on hospitality staff lose hours to manual operational administration
Hospitality operators balance physical service with manual spreadsheet updates, ordering, and task tracking. Navigating mobile apps or desktop screens during busy shifts creates friction and pulls focus from floor work.
Kibi Pro provides a push-to-talk counter device that translates spoken updates into verified inventory changes and task lists. The system runs local and cloud models to operate backend business tools without manual data entry.
The people
Direct domain experience running operations and managing physical business administration
The founder experienced the administrative burden firsthand while building and shipping physical products in small manufacturing. That insight translates directly into building frictionless voice workflows for independent hospitality teams.
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A founding team in the top half
Measured against 10,841 comparable founders with a company attached, and how those founders actually turned out.
top half
Ahead of 54%
of 10,841 comparable founders with a company attached
5,841 founders behind this team283 above Vela’s success threshold
The threshold falls inside that last band, so nobody can say exactly where. What the shape says instead is that almost nobody ever gets there, and this team is past the columns that hold most of the field.
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Hardware Engineering and Production Execution
How they got here, and what they bring that the company needs.
How they got here
Education
Denis Vasilev studied at Tiumenskii industrial'nyi universitet.
Fabrication venture
Led OOO Studiia 3D Pechati AIND for 3.3 years, prototyping two 3D printers and an air purifier.
Commercial scaling
Manufactured proprietary product lines in-house, selling over 1,000 units and reaching $10,000 in monthly revenue.
+Hands-on mechanical design and additive prototyping for physical devices.
+End-to-end execution taking hardware products through design, fabrication, and assembly.
+Operational experience running in-house manufacturing and commercial hardware sales.
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What they build
An integrated hardware and software system running administrative tasks and operational tracking through voice.
Kibi Pro
A local business computer paired with a push-to-talk voice terminal.
Kibi Pro combines an embedded ESP32 voice terminal with a local business computer managing inventory, CRM, tasks, and expenses. Staff issue spoken instructions to operate tools and record workflows without manual entry. A local system of record maintains operational data while on-device models review business records to surface daily priorities.
Voice capture
Push-to-talk input on the terminal
Staff speak directly into the ESP32 terminal to initiate tasks, record expenses, or report stock adjustments.
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Local transcription
On-device speech processing
Local speech-to-text models convert the audio stream into text directly on the local machine.
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Cloud interpretation
Intent extraction via Claude
Claude parses the transcribed request in the cloud to structure the required operational action.
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Local execution
Permission checks and record updates
Local software verifies permissions, creates draft orders, and updates shared records upon confirmation.
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How they win customers
Independent hospitality venues adopt Kibi Pro through direct pilots and paired hardware subscriptions.
Direct outreach
Engaging independent café operators
Kibi connects directly with café owners managing daily service alongside administrative tasks.
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Live pilot
Validating workflows in daily service
Venues run initial in-store trials to demonstrate voice task capture and local operational efficiency.
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Commitment
Adopting upfront hardware and software
Operators buy the Kibi Pro unit for $1,600 upfront with an ongoing $100 monthly subscription.
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Momentum
Where the company is today, and the track record behind it.
Live
An initial test site
Operational testing of the functional hardware prototype.
Track record: previous manufacturing
Hardware product lines$10,000 monthly revenue
Manufactured and shipped over 1,000 proprietary physical units across earlier product lines.
The model · gross margin
~40%Hardware batch scale target
~50%Subscriptions software target
Revenue over time
The chart fills in as they report
Monthly revenue, renewals and expansion will draw here once the founders share them.
Web traffic · funding
Commercial production
Fleet operating metrics will follow the initial batch manufacturing run.
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Where Sldvlab stands apart
A shared push-to-talk terminal brings common records and voice operations directly to the counter.
Dedicated physical interfacevs personal phones and mobile apps
Staff update operational logs through a direct button press at the counter, avoiding the need to locate a phone, launch an app, and type.
A single business terminal maintains continuous local records for the whole team rather than distributing store data across separate personal devices.
Voice-driven execution layervs manual POS and CRM entry
Kibi Pro coordinates tasks, stock, and purchase drafts from spoken instructions, running existing tools directly instead of requiring manual screen inputs.
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Investor fit
How each fund's thesis reads the company. Vela's view is our own; any other fund's is a comparison with what that fund has backed.
Vela Partners’ view
Would we invest?
Not a fit
a16z portfolio fit
Compared with what a16z has backed
Not a fit
Sequoia portfolio fit
Compared with what Sequoia has backed
Not a fit
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What's next for Sldvlab
The milestones that turn a strong start into a category leader.
Next
Validate commercial café pilots
Kibi Pro is rolling out initial pilot deployments with partner cafés to establish daily operating reliability and unit economics.
Then
Scale batch manufacturing and technical hiring
Supported by a $350k seed round, Kibi is producing limited hardware editions with multi-color 3D printing and recruiting core software and hardware engineers.
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Where this comes from
Researched by Vela. The company chose to be listed and what appears here.
Company site · products, positioning
LinkedIn · founders and company
Crunchbase · no rounds on record
SimilarWeb · not tracked yet
Founder interview · traction and economics
Questions
Kibi Pro operates as a voice-assisted AI secretary and operations terminal for independent hospitality businesses. Staff push a button on an ESP32 terminal to log requests, create or complete tasks, look up recipes, and draft purchase orders without opening a separate software app. Critical operations like updating inventory stock require explicit local confirmation before changes take effect.
Not a fit
Not a fit