Deal Memo 

Publication Date: 08/04/2025

Prosper is backed by top-tier investors, including Alexandr Wang, founder of Scale AI and now Chief AI Officer at Meta, Ben Mann, Co-Founder of Anthropic, and Simon Last, Founder of Notion, reflecting strong conviction in the team and vision.

 Prosper trades at a $90M valuation while competitor Figure AI raised at $39.5B - a 400x+ discount for a more practical approach.

Our syndicate has the exclusive opportunity to participate in Prosper's seed round through our "Prosper Investors" SPV - with first preference for FundNV LPs.  We're syndicating capital to propel this high-potential venture forward and fill our $200k allocation. 

Team

   Shariq Hashme (Founder): Former OpenAI technical staffer and Scale AI’s 14th hire, Shariq Hashme is the founder of Prosper. At Scale, he joined in 2017 and spent a year overseeing operations in the Philippines before going on to OpenAI and eventually launching Prosper.

Hashme's departure from Scale AI was due to a violation of trust involving unauthorized financial transactions. In May 2019, Scale AI noticed unauthorized withdrawals of $140 repeatedly transferred to multiple PayPal accounts, totaling approximately $56,000 over five months. An investigation revealed Hashme, then 26, was behind the withdrawals, and in October 2019, he pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. Ahead of his sentencing, Alexandr Wang, the founder and CEO of Scale AI (and current Chief AI Officer @ META) wrote a letter to the judge in support of Hashme, as did 13 other current or former Scale employees. In the letter, Wang stated, “I believe Shariq is genuinely remorseful for his crime, and I have no reason to believe he will ever do something like this again,” and noted that the company would not have wanted the wrongdoer prosecuted if it had known it was Hashme. Hashme lost his job, his stock options, and Scale AI’s sponsorship of his green card application. Scale AI offered him a $10,000 severance payment before leaving, which he declined to accept, according to Wang’s letter. Hashme paid the money back in 2019, and in February 2020, he was sentenced to three months in federal prison, which he served. Hashme reflected on the incident, stating: “I had a major lapse in judgment when I was younger. I was facing some personal challenges and stole from my employer. The consequences and the realization of what I’d done came as a shock, and led to a lot of soul-searching.” Alexandr Wang was one of the first investors in Prosper, underscoring his ongoing confidence in Hashme’s character and capabilities.

Jordan Gonen: Jordan is a serial builder, writer, and technologist, and one of the core team members leading product and strategy at Prosper, where he's focused on redefining how people interact with humanoid robotics. He previously founded and served as CEO of Compound, a tech-enabled asset and wealth management platform that grew to over $2.5 billion in AUM. Jordan has worked at the intersection of computer science and finance, including time at MIT’s Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) as part of the computational biology group. He studied computer science and finance at Washington University in St. Louis and HKUST. 

   Buck Lewis: Buck is a renowned character designer and visual storyteller whose work has shaped some of the most iconic animated films of the past two decades. With credits on over 20 major titles including Cars, Kung Fu Panda, Ratatouille, Ice Age, Madagascar, and Lilo & Stitch, Lewis is known for creating emotionally resonant characters with universal appeal. His ability to turn unlikely figures into beloved protagonists was perhaps most evident in Ratatouille, where he transformed a rat into the endearing chef Remy, sparking a global surge in demand for pet rats after the film’s release. Now, Lewis brings his storytelling expertise to the world of robotics as the creative lead at Prosper, where he is responsible for crafting every aspect of the humanoid robot Alfie. His goal is ambitious: to reimagine how we perceive humanoid robots, not as cold or threatening but as warm, trustworthy, and genuinely helpful.

Fitzgerald Heslop: Fitzgerald is a nationally recognized expert in professional household management and high-end hospitality training. For seven years, he was the only person within the U.S. Department of Defense qualified to train household managers for three- and four-star generals. A former Program Director at Peak Technical Institute’s Social Decorum Academy, Heslop has also served as a personal assistant to Fortune 500 executives and as Head Concierge at a luxury hotel. He is known for his deep expertise in etiquette, presentation, and service excellence, and has been featured in Forbes and the Hartford Business Journal. Heslop has also served as Grand Master of Ceremonies for multiple national conventions hosted by the Domestic Estate Managers Association, further cementing his leadership in the private service industry. 

• Alexandr Wang (Scale AI founder/CEO, now Meta's Chief AI Officer - and notably, Hashme's former employer who supports his rehabilitation)
• Ben Mann (Anthropic co-founder, expert in AI safety and alignment)
• Simon Last (Notion co-founder, understands product-market fit)
• Debo Olaosebikan (Kepler Computing CEO, deep hardware experience)

1. Technical and Engineering Challenges: Developing reliable, autonomous humanoid robots remains fiendishly difficult, with issues like battery limitations, hardware reliability, and AI integration for generalization to unseen tasks. For a company like Prosper, with remote human oversight, scaling to full independence is a massive hurdle. This risk could delay timelines, increase costs, and erode investor confidence.
2. Intense Competition and Market Saturation: The field is crowded with well-funded players like Tesla (Optimus), Figure AI (valued at $39.5 billion in 2025 funding rounds), Boston Dynamics, and Chinese firms, making it hard for smaller startups like Prosper to differentiate or capture market share. High R&D costs (often billions) and the need for mass production favor incumbents, while overvaluation bubbles heighten the risk of funding dry-ups or acquisition pressures. However, Prosper's hybrid approach and significant valuation discount provide strategic advantages
3. Regulatory, Ethical, and Social Barriers: Humanoid robots raise concerns over privacy (data collection in sensitive spaces like homes/hospitals), safety (risk of injury from heavy frames), job displacement (e.g., in hospitality or caregiving), and ethical issues (e.g., developing empathy or rights debates). Regulatory hurdles, including new safety standards and labor laws, could slow adoption, while public resistance might hinder market entry. 
4. Financial Sustainability and Funding Risks: High capital requirements for R&D, manufacturing, and scaling pose existential threats, especially amid economic uncertainties like potential 2025 trade wars or investor skepticism. Startups like Prosper face challenges in securing ongoing funding, IP gaps (dominated by corporations), and overpromising could trigger valuation crashes or shutdowns. 
5. Founder Background: Shariq Hashme's 2019 conviction creates perception risk, mitigated by full accountability, restitution, rehabilitation, and continued support from the affected party (now lead investor)

Industry Momentum: Robotics attracted over $6 billion in funding during 2024, signaling massive institutional confidence in the sector's potential. However, most investments are chasing unproven full-automation approaches that may take decades to achieve practical deployment.

Third-Party Validation: MIT Technology Review's comprehensive feature on Prosper highlights the company as "thinking differently about trust" in an industry plagued by unrealistic promises. The article positions Prosper's approach as potentially transformative for societal acceptance of household robots.

Strategic Timing Advantage: While competitors burn through capital pursuing impossible near-term autonomy, Prosper's transparent hybrid model allows immediate revenue generation and real-world data collection. This sustainable approach provides a clear competitive moat during the critical early market formation period.

Exceptional Team Assembly: The combination of AI expertise (ex-OpenAI/Scale AI), world-class character design (Pixar legend), and elite service protocols (DoD-qualified hospitality expert) creates capabilities that cannot be replicated by competitors.

FundNV's General Partners deemed that, as conservative stewards of LP capital, it would be prudent to pass at the fund level given Shariq's background. However, the GPs believe strongly in the deal, team, and opportunity, and all plan to personally invest through the SPV

Market Sizes and Growth Projections

The overall service robotics market is valued at ~$60-70 billion in 2025, with humanoids as a high-growth subset (~$2-3 billion). Below is a breakdown by sector, focusing on domestic tasks. Projections are to 2030 unless noted.

• Aggregated Market for These Use Cases: ~$23 billion in 2025, growing to ~$55 billion by 2030 at ~22% average CAGR. Humanoids represent 10-20% currently but could capture 40-50% by 2030 as autonomy improves.

Adoption Insights

• Homes: Adoption ~5-10% in affluent regions; driven by smart homes (e.g., integration with Alexa). Challenges: Cost barriers for middle-income households.
• Hospitals: ~15-20% penetration in developed countries; robots reduce nurse workload by 20-30%. Examples: NAO robot for patient companionship.
• Hotels: Nascent (~5% globally); pilots in chains like Hilton show 15-20% efficiency gains in service. COVID accelerated contactless adoption.
• Forecast: By 2030, humanoids could handle 50% of routine tasks in these sectors, with remote assistance bridging autonomy gaps (as in Prosper's model).

Bottom line: $2.5 trillion long-term market opportunity, $458M near-term addressable market by 2030.

Prosper's Alfie targets humanoid robotics for domestic tasks at $10,000-$15,000 per unit (average $12,500 assumed). TAM represents the theoretical maximum global revenue if Prosper captured 100% of the addressable market. SAM is the realistic portion Prosper can service. 

• Global TAM Calculation: Based on potential unit sales across sectors, using conservative adoption estimates and data from reports. This assumes full market saturation over 10-20 years, including all affluent/need-based customers.
  • Homes: 200 million target households globally (affluent/elderly in developed markets) × $12,500 = $2.5 trillion 
  • Hospitals: 60 million global hospital beds; assume 1 robot per 100 beds (600,000 units) × $12,500 = $7.5 billion.
  • Hotels: 700,000 global hotels; assume 1 robot per hotel (700,000 units) × $12,500 = $8.75 billion.
  • Total TAM: ~$2.52 trillion (dominated by homes, reflecting long-term potential as humanoids become ubiquitous like smartphones).
• Global SAM Calculation: The serviceable portion, limited to near-term (to 2030) projections for humanoid segments in these use cases, Prosper's capabilities, and market share potential. Using the 2030 humanoid forecast ($15.3 billion), with 50% for personal assistance/caregiving (homes/hospitals) and 10% for hospitality (hotels).
  • Relevant Humanoid Market by 2030: $15.3 billion total; ~$9.16 billion for target segments (60% allocation).
  • Prosper's Realistic Share: 5% (accounting for competition, early stage, and focus on trustworthiness/remote ops) = $458 million.
  • Alternative Unit-Based: 10 million units globally by 2030 in target sectors (conservative from growth forecasts) × $12,500 × 2% share = $2.5 billion (but adjusted down for realism).
  • Total SAM: ~$458 million by 2030, scaling to $700-900 million with growth.

Exceptional Team That Cannot Be Replicated
The intersection of AI expertise, Hollywood storytelling, and elite hospitality service creates a unique competitive advantage. Shariq Hashme's experience managing Scale AI's Philippines workforce directly applies to Prosper's remote operations model, while Buck Lewis brings unmatched character design capabilities from Pixar's most successful films.

Validated Approach vs. Unproven Full Automation
Prosper applies the proven Scale AI playbook to robotics: human operators generate immediate revenue while training AI systems toward full autonomy. This sustainable model contrasts sharply with competitors burning billions on unproven full-automation promises.

Massive Valuation Arbitrage
At $90 million, Prosper trades at a 400x+ discount to Figure AI's $39.5 billion valuation while pursuing a more practical go-to-market strategy. This disconnect creates exceptional upside potential as market reality sets in.

AI Industry Legend Validation
When Alexandr Wang (Scale AI founder), Ben Mann (Anthropic co-founder), and Simon Last (Notion co-founder) write checks, smart money follows. Their collective expertise in AI, scaling operations, and product development provides both capital and strategic guidance.

Market Entry Timing
Prosper enters the market as robotics funding peaks but before practical deployments prove which approaches work. Their transparent hybrid model positions them to capture market share while competitors struggle with technical limitations and investor reality checks.

The humanoid robotics industry is broad, with companies pursuing a range of verticals from industrial automation to personal assistance. Prosper’s most prominent competitors are Tesla and Figure, both of which are developing sophisticated humanoid robots with significant capital and engineering resources. These companies are currently focused on manufacturing, logistics, and warehouse applications, targeting labor shortages in dangerous and repetitive roles. However, both have publicly stated plans to expand into household environments, which could eventually put them in direct competition with Prosper. More immediate competitors in the in-home and hospitality space include 1X, which is based in Palo Alto, and Zerith Robotics, a China-based company that has received attention for its hotel-cleaning robot featured in Forbes. Prosper’s key advantage lies in its intentional focus on service-oriented sectors from the outset, allowing the team to build technology, branding, and operational systems specifically tailored to these environments. With hospitality continuing to face severe labor shortages following the pandemic, Prosper is positioned to gain early traction in a high-need market before larger industrial players pivot in the same direction.

This is venture capital at its best: Backing an exceptional team with a differentiated strategy in a massive market, at a significant valuation discount to competitors.

The constellation of AI industry leaders investing tells the story - they see what we see.

Total Addressable Opportunity: Join the robotics revolution at ground-floor valuation
Investment Risk: Managed through hybrid approach and proven team
FOMO Factor: These allocations don't come available often

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