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Alley Robotics Ventures

Core team

Abe Murray, Managing Partner

Abe Murray, Managing Partner

Abe Murray, Managing Partner

Abe is the Managing Partner at ARV which he founded after meeting and working with Kevin Ryan of AlleyCorp and Eliot Horowitz of Viam Robotics in late 2021.  Abe remains an Advisor at AlleyCorp and takes inspiration from them as he builds ARV.


Abe was previously a product and eng leader at Alphabet. He worked on Android, built the Verily L

Abe is the Managing Partner at ARV which he founded after meeting and working with Kevin Ryan of AlleyCorp and Eliot Horowitz of Viam Robotics in late 2021.  Abe remains an Advisor at AlleyCorp and takes inspiration from them as he builds ARV.


Abe was previously a product and eng leader at Alphabet. He worked on Android, built the Verily Life Science product teams, and built the Google Research product  team. Before Google he built a Web 2.0 startup and worked on some pretty cool UAVs in the defense industry. 


Abe has some shiny degrees (HBS MBA, WPI MS EE, URI BS Comp Eng) but learned the most when he dropped out of high school to run fishing boats and factory lines in the family aquaculture business. 


Abe does other stuff too - in his free time, Abe enjoys being a parent and partner, building all kinds of things with his kids, and staying as healthy as he's able.




Brannon Jones, Associate

Abe Murray, Managing Partner

Abe Murray, Managing Partner

Brannon is an Associate at ARV where he helps Abe and the team invest in amazing robotics and automation companies and provides post-investment portfolio support.


Brannon was previously at SpaceX where he was a lead manufacturing, automation, and integration engineer. He built propulsive systems for SpaceX's reusable rockets and for the St

Brannon is an Associate at ARV where he helps Abe and the team invest in amazing robotics and automation companies and provides post-investment portfolio support.


Brannon was previously at SpaceX where he was a lead manufacturing, automation, and integration engineer. He built propulsive systems for SpaceX's reusable rockets and for the Starship Raptor concept engine. He lead an eng team through conceptualizing, acquiring, and commissioning a multi-million-dollar robotic factory with industry leading production capabilities. 


Brannon has some shiny degrees - he studied mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University (where he played varsity Division-1 football) and he holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Brannon does other stuff too - in his free time, Brannon enjoys weightlifting, playing sports, reading, tinkering, and trying new foods.  

Emily Yu, Venture Fellow

Abe Murray, Managing Partner

Megan Smith, Venture Fellow

Emily is a Venture Fellow at ARV where she helps the team investigate and explore robotics and automation companies, with a particular focus on food / bev / ag.


Emily was previously at Amazon Robotics where she led the expansion of Amazon’s robotic warehouse footprint to EU and APEC, tripling their capacity in two years. She also founded a

Emily is a Venture Fellow at ARV where she helps the team investigate and explore robotics and automation companies, with a particular focus on food / bev / ag.


Emily was previously at Amazon Robotics where she led the expansion of Amazon’s robotic warehouse footprint to EU and APEC, tripling their capacity in two years. She also founded a robotic bartender company serving in offices among other startup experiences leading product and hardware development in industries such as additive manufacturing and food & bev.


Emily has shiny degrees too - she holds a BS in Robotics and Mechanical Engineering from WPI, and is currently pursuing her MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, where she leads the VCPE Club and AI & ML Club.


Emily does other stuff too - in her free time, Emily enjoys running, snowboarding, traveling, yoga/meditation, and dark chocolate (adventured to the deep rainforest jungle of Ecuador to harvest cacao fruits)!

Megan Smith, Venture Fellow

Megan Smith, Venture Fellow

Megan Smith, Venture Fellow

Megan is a Venture Fellow at ARV where she helps Abe and the team invest in  robotics and automation companies and provides post-investment portfolio support.


Megan was previously at Rugged Robotics where she was a lead engineer and software dev. As Rugged's first hire, she designed, built, tested, and launched the startup's MVP. 


Megan was

Megan is a Venture Fellow at ARV where she helps Abe and the team invest in  robotics and automation companies and provides post-investment portfolio support.


Megan was previously at Rugged Robotics where she was a lead engineer and software dev. As Rugged's first hire, she designed, built, tested, and launched the startup's MVP. 


Megan was at NASA (LM/NG) - where she led the first mock-up design and build of HALO, "humanity's first permanent home away from Earth," for astronaut testing at NASA JSC.


Megan has shiny degrees - with her BS in mechanical engineering from Purdue University, where she co-founded their Hyperloop team, received the Walter Hesse Solar Energy award, and played in the marching band.


Megan does other stuff too - in her free time, Megan enjoys biking at the beach, learning new things, and playing music.

#AlwaysBeHiring

Megan Smith, Venture Fellow

#AlwaysBeHiring

Does Alley Robotics Ventures seem like the kind of place you could contribute?  Do you know someone who would be an amazing fit?  Or someone who might deliver a ton of value at our portfolio companies?  


We are always hiring! 


ARV is always looking for amazing talent - whether a future associate, Venture Fellow, OIR or other friend of the f

Does Alley Robotics Ventures seem like the kind of place you could contribute?  Do you know someone who would be an amazing fit?  Or someone who might deliver a ton of value at our portfolio companies?  


We are always hiring! 


ARV is always looking for amazing talent - whether a future associate, Venture Fellow, OIR or other friend of the fund.  


Must be humble, thoughtful, and kind - and also excited by tech and ambitious to help us invent the future. 


Apply here.

Brain trust

Wendy Tsu, Advisor

Susannah Shipton, Advisor

Susannah Shipton, Advisor

ARV is lucky to have Wendy as an Advisor!  Wendy is a Partner at AlleyCorp focused on consumer investments, incubations, and collaborative foundership. She helped create much of AlleyCorp's culture and helps ARV build its fund up in a similar fashion.

Susannah Shipton, Advisor

Susannah Shipton, Advisor

Susannah Shipton, Advisor

ARV is also lucky to have Susannah as an Advisor! Susannah is VP of Platform and an Investor at AlleyCorp who built and lead their Platform Team. At ARV she advises us on how to support our companies, and how to work with other funds such as AlleyCorp.

Aniq Kassam, Advisor

Joseph Krause, Advisor

Joseph Krause, Advisor

Aniq is the Managing Director of GETTYLAB and its early-stage investment arm, FAST. He's been investing in companies founded on engineering-driven insights since 2014, and we at ARV seamlessly collaborate with Aniq when brainstorming what's possible as advances in applied math coalesce with those in electrical, mechanical and embedded software engineering.

Joseph Krause, Advisor

Joseph Krause, Advisor

Joseph Krause, Advisor

Joseph focuses on frontier tech companies with an emphasis on materials and robotics. A PhD student at Rice University in NanoEngineering, he has conducted research at the US Army Research Lab building novel neuromorphic chips.  An Associate at AlleyCorp, Joseph is also an Advisor at ARV.

Leaving the world better than we found it

A few thoughts from Abe

Thanks for visiting our little corner of the internet!  I feel very lucky to be here working with you and others like you to make the world better.  I've had so much fun building products, businesses, and companies throughout the years, and am having even more fun helping amazing founders do the same!


I am here to leave the world better than I found it.  I believe deeply that the work we do in technology accomplishes this - when we are purposeful and diligent in doing hard things to solve problems that matter.


Robotics and automation is needed to solve a number of these problems.  Problems like climate change.  Problems like how to feed the world (in the face of climate change).  Problems like making and distributing goods to a growing middle class without bankrupting our environment.  Problems like  handling global demographic shifts and labor shortages. 


We are here to help make this happen, and to do our best to be part of the solution.  We are grateful to work with you as we do so!

Contact Us

How can we help you build an amazing company?

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