Participated · Seed · Jul 2021

NewCampus operates an online, live learning platform that trains rising managers at hyper-growth organizations across Southeast Asia. Its leadership sprints focus on philosophical management skills such as creating safe team environments and retaining knowledge, delivered via in-house content with industry expert contributors. Learners are expected to spend four to five hours per week, including about 90 minutes of live, instructor-led workshops. The company sells annual subscriptions to individuals and bespoke in-house programs to larger organizations, with the current split between individual programming and in-house programming roughly 50/50. About 80% of its learners and 60% of its instructors identify as women. Founded in 2019 in Singapore, NewCampus is pursuing university accreditation and intends to scale and niche its content to serve hundreds of thousands of emerging managers.

Participated · Series A · Jun 2021

Toggle is a New York-based robotics company that builds machines to bend rebar used in heavy construction. The startup has raised a total of $15 million to date, including an initial $8M Series A announced in 2021 and a recent $3M Series A extension. The new funds will be used to ramp up robotic production and expand hiring, with roles focused on engineering and operations. Toggle’s headcount is currently 40 and the company plans to double that over the next year ahead of an upcoming Series B. CEO Daniel Blank says demand is being driven by renewed interest in American manufacturing, infrastructure and renewable energy investments and by pandemic-era pressures such as supply-chain disruptions, inflation, and rising labor costs that are accelerating automation and prefab construction methods. Toggle builds robotics technology that automates the assembly of rebar, the foundational building material, completing work in a fraction of the time of manual methods. The company targets large construction projects and says its tools add capacity while saving time and cost, with a stated focus on renewable energy and sustainable urban development. Toggle announced an $8 million Series A to expand production capacity. The startup previously raised a $3 million seed round in late 2019. Proceeds from the new round will fund increased headcount and an upgrade to a new 50,000 square foot production facility. The raise comes amid rising investor interest in robotics and construction automation. Toggle is a Brooklyn-based, 15-person robotics startup that builds robots to fabricate and assemble rebar. Its systems are designed to work alongside existing robotics and steel fabrication technologies and, by the company’s count, can speed the process up to five times. Toggle has begun a soft launch for a wide range of projects in New York City and the surrounding area. The company expects to ramp toward commercial production over the next year and a half. CEO Daniel Blank says the recent seed funding will be used for R&D, development of both hardware and software around assembly and fabrication automation, and to grow the engineering team. The funding also provides a foundation for Toggle’s manufacturing operation, which is already supplying services and materials to customers in the NYC region.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2020

Fiveable started as a free online learning community focused on helping high school students pass AP exams through livestreamed “cram shops,” study guides and an active Discord. The company is evolving into a broader social learning platform that enables student-directed spaces and multiplayer study experiences. It acquired Hours, a virtual study platform, to incorporate shared timers, task lists and study-session features into its roadmap. Fiveable prioritizes growth over monetization for now and keeps its platform entirely free to users. The startup reports more than 7.3 million students have used the platform with 3x year‑over‑year growth, a Discord community of over 25,000 users, and when it previously charged for access it granted more than 3,000 scholarships. The team includes over 50 paid student interns and a diverse staff, and the new funding will be used to grow the team and build more student-led online spaces. Fiveable combines educational content, community, and collaboration to support high school students with a focus on social learning. The platform hosts more than 5,000 pieces of content—study guides, live streamed lessons, and Q&A forums—and serves 1.5 million high school students. Students who studied with Fiveable achieved a 92% pass rate on Advanced Placement exams. The company offers Fall and Spring Fiveable Courses covering all 38 AP subjects with live instruction, practice assignments, feedback, and TA support. Fiveable is building a reimagined social learning community to address isolation and motivation, with an 800-student “Founding Members” team informing product design and a beta community planned for launch this winter. The recently secured funds will be used to propel that social learning experience and expand community offerings. Fiveable builds live-streamed learning sessions and online communities to help high school students prepare for Advanced Placement exams. The company was one of eight startups selected for AT&T’s Aspire Accelerator, which pairs mentorship with exposure to AT&T’s 5G capabilities. As part of the accelerator Fiveable will receive $125,000, including a $100,000 investment from AT&T Aspire, and the program culminates in a December demo day. Earlier, Fiveable won a $25,000 investment in a virtual competition run by ECMC Foundation and Chloe Capital. Founder and CEO Amanda DoAmaral said the company is positioned for growth as remote and online learning expand. The article notes the accelerator connected Fiveable with other top-tier investors and that additional funding is likely. Fiveable is a social learning platform that provides interactive test-prep content, live-streamed lessons, trivia review games, study guides, and a community forum with live support. The company recently dropped its paywall and launched a free, student-first platform while aiming to reach 100,000 student users this spring. Fiveable serves nearly 40,000 students who have achieved a 92% AP exam pass rate using the platform, and it employs more than 180 active content creators. Core offerings include weekly live streams, personalized dashboards, and paid “Cram Passes” for intensive pre-exam review sessions. The company plans to expand the number of AP subjects it covers and to add test-prep resources for the SAT and ACT. Fiveable was founded in 2018 by Amanda DoAmaral and is based in Milwaukee.