Arbor Raises $6.3M to Turn Frontline Voices into Operational Intelligence

NEW YORK, Feb. 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Arbor, the AI research platform for enterprise operations, today announced it has raised $6.3 million in combined seed and pre-seed funding. The seed round was led by 645 Ventures, with participation from Next Play Ventures (led by LinkedIn Executive Chairman and former CEO Jeff Weiner), Chaac Ventures, Comma Capital, and notable angel investors, along with a previously unannounced pre-seed round. The funding will accelerate Arbor's product development and team expansion in New York to meet surging demand from enterprise customers seeking to unlock insights trapped in offline conversations.

The people closest to enterprise operations know exactly what's working and what needs to change. However, their insights rarely reach the executives making decisions. Traditional surveys and consultants are too slow and expensive to capture these voices at scale. Arbor bridges the gap by conducting AI-powered interviews with frontline employees and customers, turning millions of hours of conversations into executive-grade intelligence in minutes, not months.

Co-founders Veronica Ma and Kelly Zhou, who first met investing together at Insight Partners, brought on CTO and co-founder Ashish Dsa. The founding team brings deep 0-to-1 experience across multiple startups and backgrounds from Meta, Harvard, and Princeton.

The company is already working with a range of operationally complex enterprises, from multi-billion dollar transportation leaders like First Student to complex food manufacturers like Lyons Magnus. Here, frontline voices hold the insights executives need most. Early customers are achieving participation rates of 85-90%, while uncovering operational bottlenecks that drive seven-figure cost savings.

"There's a crisis of wasted knowledge happening right now in every warehouse, every store, every manufacturing floor," said Veronica, co-founder and CEO. "The people doing the work and the customers visiting the site know what's broken. Companies are leaving millions on the table by not listening. Our mission is to unlock ground truth, and this funding lets us do it at the scale these industries deserve."

That ground truth has always existed, but it's been impossible to capture at the scale and quality that enterprises need. Traditional research means expensive consultants or low-impact DIY initiatives, with weeks of manual interviews and surveys, resulting in insights that are outdated by the time they're delivered. Arbor's platform automates the entire process, conducting thousands of conversations simultaneously and surfacing patterns in real-time. It's the difference between asking 50 people and asking 5,000.

"The opportunity to transform how enterprises capture qualitative, conversational insights is massive," said Nnamdi Okike, Co-founder and Managing Partner at 645 Ventures. "The Arbor team is uniquely positioned to unlock it, bringing the perfect blend of AI expertise and deep understanding of enterprise operations. They've already earned the trust of some of the world's largest, most operationally complex companies. We're excited to partner with them as they scale."

The new capital will be deployed to expand Arbor's team across engineering, product, and go-to-market functions, and to accelerate product development to serve additional industries and use cases.

To get in touch with the Arbor team, reach out to [email protected].

About Arbor
Arbor is the AI research platform for enterprises that power the global economy. The company transforms employee and customer conversations into executive-grade strategic intelligence, serving enterprises across manufacturing, logistics, retail, and beyond. Arbor's full-stack AI platform delivers participation rates over 90% while replacing expensive consultants and traditional survey tools. Headquartered in New York, Arbor is backed by 645 Ventures, Next Play Ventures, and leading angels. Learn more at www.findarbor.com.

About 645 Ventures
645 Ventures is a venture capital firm that partners with exceptional founders building iconic companies. The firm invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, and growth stages across fintech, consumer, healthtech, enterprise, cybersecurity, infrastructure/developer tools and deep tech. 645 Ventures supports founders through its resource-intensive approach encompassing hiring, customer introductions and growth strategy, leveraging its proprietary software platform Voyager and deep Connected Network. 645 Ventures manages over $550M in AUM across five funds with investments in industry leaders including Goldbelly, Iterable, Overtime, Resident (acq. By Ashley Home, Inc.), Setpoint, ShopCircle and Shift5. Learn more at www.645ventures.com.

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SOURCE Find Arbor Incorporated