Participated · Equity · Feb 2019

SendFriend provides a blockchain technology platform aimed at reducing the cost of remittance payments for Overseas Filipino Workers. The company leverages a partnership with Ripple and uses xRapid, employing XRP as a liquidity vehicle to convert USD to XRP to PHP in seconds and circumvent the correspondent banking system. Led by co-founder and CEO David Lighton, SendFriend was accepted into the Barclays Accelerator Program, Powered by Techstars, to further develop its customer-first solution. The company plans to launch in New Jersey and expand availability to OFWs in other U.S. states via desktop and mobile. Financially, SendFriend has raised $1.7M in total funding and intends to use the proceeds to build out the team, and to focus on community engagement and marketing efforts.

Participated · Equity · Dec 2014

Virtuix, founded in April 2013 and based in Austin, Texas, develops Omni — an omni-directional treadmill that enables 360-degree movement in virtual environments. Its commercial product line includes Omni Pro and Omni Arena, a turnkey multiplayer attraction comprising four Omni Pro units. The company has shipped nearly 4,000 Omni Pro systems to more than 500 commercial entertainment venues worldwide. Its Omniverse content platform offers 24 VR games with built-in esports competitions and has hosted over two million plays to date. Virtuix plans to launch Omni One, a consumer version for the home with a 30-title game store at launch, including company-developed and licensed third-party titles. The company intends to sell Omni One for $1,995 or via a $55-per-month payment plan and will use proceeds from recent financing to fund the launch. Virtuix develops the Omni, a patent-pending omni-directional treadmill that enables users to walk, run, and jump within 360-degree virtual environments to create a full virtual reality experience. The company positions the Omni to take VR beyond seated experiences by supporting natural movement and delivering increased immersion and presence. Virtuix completed a $2.7 million investment round to support operations, fund working capital and accelerate research and development around the full VR experience. The company has pre-sold more than 3,500 Omnis and offers the device for pre-order at $499 per unit; it has raised $7 million to date, including a $3 million seed and $1.1 million via Kickstarter. Virtuix added advisors Kai Huang (co-founder of Red Octane) and Mike Griffith (former Activision Publishing CEO) to guide scaling, branding and product development. The final Omni was scheduled to be revealed at CES in January 2015, with commercial production targeted for Q1 of the following year. Founded in April 2013 and headquartered in Houston, Texas, Virtuix is completing final development ahead of its upcoming commercial launch. Virtuix builds the Omni, an omni-directional treadmill designed to let users physically walk and explore virtual-reality environments. The company developed the Omni over roughly three years, with founder and CEO Jan Goetgeluk investing his life savings and working on the device after hours. Virtuix plans a commercial launch and expects to begin shipping the Omni to its Kickstarter backers later this year. It is partnering with manufacturers in China to bring the treadmill to market; COO David Allen has prior manufacturing experience in China. Financially, Virtuix completed a $3 million first institutional financing to broaden the market, following a $1.1 million Kickstarter that came from 3,000 backers. The company is based in Houston. Virtuix builds the Omni, a 360-degree treadmill designed to let users run, walk, or jump in place while playing games on the Oculus Rift. The Omni is a 4-foot-tall, 110-pound platform sold with special shoes and a belt harness for safety. The company is taking preorders on its website, with orders slated to ship in March. The Omni package is priced at $499 (the article notes a VR50 coupon code that yields $50 off). Virtuix raised $1.1 million on Kickstarter last month for the Omni. The article also references the Oculus Rift dev kit, which is available as a $300 prototype.

Participated · Seed · Sep 2014

Dagne Dover makes handbags designed to meet the needs of busy, modern women. The products are made in Vietnam and include dedicated compartments for a water bottle, laptop, keys, pens, wallet, ID and phone. The brand was founded in 2012 by retail and handbag industry veterans Melissa Mash (CEO), Deepa Gandhi and Jessy Dover. In March 2013 the company released its signature collection, which sold out by November 2013, and its Tote and Clutch-Wallet models have since been re-stocked online. The company recently raised $1.25M in seed funding to support growth initiatives. It plans to use the funds for hiring, scaling inventory and expanding its current collection.

Participated · Seed · Aug 2013

Spotsetter operates a mobile social recommendations platform that uses a patent-pending ranking algorithm to surface place recommendations. The algorithm leverages each user’s content across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Foursquare and pulls venue content from more than 30 review sites and trusted lists such as Yelp, Zagat, the New York Times, Michelin and TripAdvisor. The company has processed five million user profiles, indexed 40 million venues, and curated one million venue content items globally. The app is available on all iOS devices worldwide. Spotsetter announced plans to begin development for Android and other platforms later in the year. Financially, the company closed a $1.3M seed funding round led by Javelin Venture Partners with participation from angel investors.

Led · Seed · Nov 2011

AllTrails operates a widely used app and website that helps people find and navigate hiking, running and mountain biking trails, offering search, discovery, user-generated reviews, photos and offline maps. The app has been downloaded more than 40 million times and the company reports 30 million registered users across 190 countries; over 100 million users visited AllTrails.com in the past 12 months. AllTrails operates a freemium model and announced it had crossed 1 million paid subscribers earlier in the year. The company has been profitable since 2017 and says COVID accelerated existing demand and engagement metrics, including sign-up, contribution, freemium conversion and retention rates. Planned uses of new capital include product development, hiring (with continued headcount doubling driven by R&D and product roles) and international expansion, with growth already increasing across Europe, Asia and Latin America. The app will receive a 2022 upgrade and AllTrails plans features focused on personalization, improved on-trail navigation, additional language support and expanded community interaction. AllTrails operates an "outdoors platform" and mobile app that aggregates detailed trail maps, crowdsourced reviews and other tailored content for outdoor enthusiasts. The app is used by a community of about 9 million hikers, mountain bikers and trail runners across more than 100 countries and has been downloaded over 12 million times. Founded in 2010 by Russell Cook (who recently left to launch FitOn), the company is now led by CEO Jade Van Doren, who joined in September 2015. AllTrails says the business is cash-flow positive and was not actively seeking a venture infusion when Spectrum approached. The company will use the capital to map more trails, expand overseas and hire aggressively. As part of the deal, Spectrum’s Ben Spero and Matt Neidlinger will join AllTrails’ board of directors. AllTrails is a trail-review and discovery service that allows users to browse and review hiking and outdoor trails based on location, popularity, recency, length and attributes like “dog friendliness.” The company has catalogued 45,000 outdoor trails in North America and offers an iPhone app plus a newly released Android app. It was part of Angelpad's inaugural class and is run by a six-person team operating out of the old Squarespace offices in SOMA. Founder Russell Cook says the company is focused on building the largest digital network focused on the outdoors and plans to cover the outdoors more broadly. AllTrails raised $400K in seed funding from 500 Startups and 2020 Ventures and will use the cash to bolster product development. The team plans to experiment with interaction and discovery solutions to surface and add more trails.