TL;DR
- AI startup Helios has raised $4 million in seed funding, led by Unusual Ventures.
- Its flagship product Proxi is an AI operating system for public policy and regulatory professionals.
- Co-founders are former White House and State Department staff, building tools for policy analysis, memo drafting, risk scanning, and stakeholder tracking.
- Helios is targeting a niche between early-stage tools like Hence and large incumbents such as Palantir and FiscalNote.
Born from National Security Pain Points
Helios emerged from deep inside U.S. government agencies. In 2022, Joe Scheidler was helping to stand up the White House’s Office of the National Cyber Director, while Joseph Farsakh was embedded in Middle East diplomacy at the U.S. State Department. Both struggled with fractured information systems and spreadsheet-based workflows during high-stakes decisions.
Their solution? A purpose-built AI system to help policy professionals handle complex, regulated information in real time. That idea became Helios.
They recruited Brandon Smith, a former AI engineer at Microsoft and Datadog, as CTO. Together, the founding team combines technical depth, domain expertise, and government contacts.
The Data
| Company | Helios (AI for Public Policy) |
| Founded By | Joe Scheidler, Joseph Farsakh, Brandon Smith |
| Seed Raised | $4 million |
| Lead Investor | Unusual Ventures |
| Other Investors | Founders Inc., Alumni Ventures |
| Flagship Product | Proxi (in beta) |
| Key Use Cases | Legislative scanning, policy drafting, stakeholder CRM |
| Notable Rivals | Palantir, OpenGov, FiscalNote |
| Security | End-to-end encryption, federal compliance underway |
What Is Proxi?
Proxi, Helios’ flagship platform, is a modular AI operating system designed for professionals in regulatory affairs, public policy, compliance, and legal strategy. Currently in beta, it is already in use by select federal, state, and Fortune 500 teams.
Proxi consists of four main tools:
- Consult: An always-on AI policy advisor that surfaces real-time updates from legislative and regulatory activity.
- Scribe: A collaborative writing tool that turns AI consultations into fully formatted memos, filings, or letters.
- Decipher: A document analysis engine that breaks down complex legislation into structured summaries and alerts.
- Stakeholder CRM: A tool that maps and tracks institutional relationships, meeting notes, and points of contact.
Built for Policy, Not Just Productivity
While many platforms offer writing assistants, Helios focuses on domain-specific intelligence fine-tuned on robust public policy data. Think of it less like ChatGPT, and more like an AI-native government liaison.
“We’re not just building a chatbot,” said CEO Scheidler. “We’re building an AI operating system for the way governments and corporations interact on policy.”
It’s this precision and professional relevance that Helios hopes will give it an edge over both generalist tools and legacy incumbents.
Why the Market Is Ready
Scheidler notes that public policy professionals—from state-level regulators to federal agency staffers—are under pressure to do more with less. Legacy platforms like Bloomberg Government or Civica haven’t yet embraced LLMs for proactive policy modeling or real-time compliance signals.
Instead, Helios aims to deliver a full-stack AI system with audit-grade security, smart agent collaboration, and enterprise integration options for governments and enterprise clients alike.
Security First: Federal-Grade Compliance
With sensitive legal and regulatory data at stake, Helios is investing early in security architecture. The startup uses end-to-end encryption and is working through federal-level compliance audits to unlock procurement and agency adoption.
Helios’ approach echoes efforts by competitors like Palantir and OpenGov—but with a focus on accessibility and embedded AI agents rather than top-down data platforms.
The Road Ahead: Scaling Quietly, Thinking Long-Term
Helios is not rushing to monetize. Instead, the team is prioritizing trust-building, gathering extensive feedback from beta users, and fine-tuning the platform.
“In five to seven years, we want Helios to be as synonymous with public policy as Salesforce is with CRM,” said Scheidler.
Its early investors, including Founders Inc. and Alumni Ventures, are betting on this long-term institutional capture.
Strategic Vision: A Challenger to Palantir?
While current competitors like FiscalNote offer data access and tracking, Helios envisions something deeper: proactive, automated governance infrastructure.
“We think there’s room to grow into the space that Palantir occupies,” said Scheidler. “But with better usability, better security defaults, and mission-aligned AI agents rather than black-box analytics.”
