BREAKING NEWS: Park City, Utah-based AI Startup, Hello Haven, Emerges from Stealth Mode with a $15 Million Pre

✅ Hello Haven raises $15 million, more than five times the 2025 U.S. median for combined pre-seed/seed venture financings.

✅ Previous companies started and/or led by Hello Haven CEO and Co-Founder, Frank Addante, reportedly produced a combined $1 billion in sales, two initial public offerings, and four acquisitions.

✅ Mayfield returns as an investor after holding 14.2% of Addante's Rubicon Project before its 2014 IPO.

18 September 2026 — PARK CITY, Utah — Hello Haven emerged from stealth mode yesterday (Thursday, 17 September 2026) to announce a $15 million pre-seed financing led by Mayfield, reuniting the venture firm with Frank Addante, whose earlier startups reportedly produced $1 billion in sales, two initial public offerings, and four acquisitions.

Hello Haven, a Park City, Utah-based company, simultaneously launched Haven, an artificial-intelligence-empowered software application designed to remember an individual's preferences and decisions and act on their behalf across email, phone, text, and other applications.

Regarding Mayfield's decision to lead Hello Haven's Pre-Seed Funding Round, Navin Chaddha, managing partner at Mayfield said:

Contextually, the Hello Haven financing is sizable even against a broader early-stage benchmark.

Specifically, based upon PitchBook data, the 2026 National Venture Capital Association yearbook puts the median 2025 U.S. pre-seed/seed deal at roughly $2.9 million.

In contrast, Hello Haven's round is more than five times that combined-category median, not a pre-seed-only comparison.

The Entrepreneurial Record Behind the Round

Previously, Hello Haven's Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Addante, co-founded Rubicon Project with Duc Chau, his Hello Haven Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer.

Rubicon, an advertising-technology business, went public in 2014 and (after merging with Telaria in 2020), adopted the name Magnite (NASDAQ:MGNI).

Earlier in his career, and as noted in Addante's LinkedIn profile, he

🔷 Created internet search engine Starting Point in January 1996 (acquired in December 1998 by CMGI),

🔷 Was CTO and the technology founder of publicly traded L90 in January 1998 (acquired by DoubleClick in November 2000), and he

🔷 Founded and was CEO of email-infrastructure company StrongMail Systems in January 2002 (acquired by private equity firm, HGGC, in September 2015).

When Addante launched TinkerBarn Ventures in 2021, a Park City-based startup studio and venture fund, he said his first five businesses had generated more than $5 billion in market value and raised $300 million in capital.

In the news release announcing the launch of the Haven app and Hello Haven's funding, Addante described Haven as a digital twin that "... knows what you would do and proactively does it for you."

Based upon a review of their respective LinkedIn profiles, Chau and Addante have collaborated and worked together for over 19 years.

Previously, Chau helped build the original Myspace as its lead software engineer and served as CTO of both Omaze and Yieldmo.

Early Usage, But Unproven Economics — Yet

According to its funding/launch announcement, Hello Haven says Haven draws on more than 500 artificial-intelligence models and 100 application integrations.

The company also reports more than two million interactions since its private beta of Haven opened in August.

While the $15 million financing supplies substantial early capital, the commercial test will be whether initial interactions translate into sustained usage and revenue.

As it turns out, Mayfield was more than a name on Rubicon Project's investor roster as its affiliated entities held 14.2% immediately before the Rubicon Project 2014 IPO, according to the final prospectus.

In fact, Chaddha (now Mayfield's managing partner), was one of three managers overseeing decisions involving the Rubicon Project shares.

History notwithstanding, Hello Haven has disclosed neither its number of users nor sales.

In the meantime, I believe Utah's tech community has a very intriguing and emergent AI player in Hello Haven, a firm that will be interesting to watch.

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