At defy.vc, we’ve been investing in vertical software since the firm was founded 9 years ago — backing founders who deeply understand their industries and who build product from the domain outward, not the other way around.
In this new era of applied AI, we believe that the most important companies won’t just make processes better, faster, or cheaper — they will enable work that was previously impossible.
This is especially true in sectors where the complexity and scale of operations have long exceeded the capacity of human teams. Industrial safety and compliance is one of those sectors — and it’s why we’re thrilled to announce our $3.5M seed investment in Interface.
Industrial operations, particularly in oil & gas and chemical manufacturing, require documentation for every workflow — sometimes millions of pages of standard operating procedures, engineering manuals, safety protocols, and regulatory requirements.
These documents must be regularly audited and updated. Yet no human team can realistically keep up. We heard from many potential customers that the workload isn’t just inefficient — it’s fundamentally not possible at scale.
And at the same time:
regulatory requirements are tightening globally
companies are retrofitting for green-energy transitions
safety failures cost lives, money, and environmental damage
This is a “can’t fail” problem where the stakes are too high for incremental improvements. What’s needed is a new paradigm.
Interface isn’t simply automating a workflow. It’s enabling a capability that previously didn’t exist: continuous, AI-driven compliance of complex industrial documentation at scale.
Here’s what stood out to us:
Unique founder market fit
Thomas Lee Young grew up in Trinidad & Tobago in a family of engineers so saw the real impact of industrial safety failures, later working in safety engineering at Jaguar Land Rover.
Aaryan Mehta brings deep AI expertise from Imperial College London and Amazon, where he built ML systems at scale.
A product that enables new possibilities, not small optimizations
Interface doesn’t just reduce review time. It makes it possible to:audit millions of pages continuously
detect errors before humans get hurt
identify regulatory and technical gaps in real time
Strong market pull
Thomas and Aaryan have gotten great excitement and engagement from some of the largest oil & gas producers in the world — players who don’t experiment with safety-critical systems lightly, illustrating the severity of the problem
Industrial firms are confronting a convergence of pressures:
more stringent regulation
rising ESG and environmental-risk expectations
workforce shortages in highly technical roles
complex documentation tied to green-energy retrofits
Interface is building important software that will allow these industries to operate more safely, more responsibly, and with greater resilience — not through incremental improvements but through a step-change in safety and compliance.
We were proud to lead the round — alongside Precursor Ventures, Rock Yard Ventures, and exceptional angels. Thanks to Connie Loizos, Editor in Chief at Techcrunch for covering the news as well.
If you’re interested in learning more, please reach out!
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