• Fashion Project

  Participated · Series A · Jan 2015

  Fashion Project is an online clothing shopping and donation platform aimed at women who want to give back. Founded in 2012 by Anna Palmer and Christine Rizk and based in Boston, MA, it operates an online destination for donated apparel. The platform has collected 220,000 donated items, including clothing from celebrities such as Heidi Klum and Chelsea Handler. It supports more than 2,000 non-profits and has raised over $400,000 for charities including Dana Farber and The Jimmy Fund, Big Brother Big Sister, Dress for Success and Autism Speaks. The company intends to use new funding to grow its workforce, expand facilities and increase its charitable partner network. The platform functions as a shopping and donation destination that channels proceeds to its charitable partners. Fashion Project runs an e-commerce platform where women donate high-end designer items, which the company processes, lists for resale, and donates the majority of proceeds to charities. Donors receive a mailed donation packet, can track how much their closet has raised, and are sent a tax receipt after items sell. The site reports items resell for over seven times the price achieved at a typical thrift store on average; since launch in November the platform has collected roughly a quarter million dollars in donation value. Fashion Project keeps 40% of sales while 60% goes directly to the donor-selected charities. The company operates out of a Boston warehouse and has focused heavily on nailing backend operations and distribution before scaling. Planned uses of funding include growth initiatives, a mobile-optimized website launch this month, announced participation from high-profile fashion players as celebrity donors, and longer-term native mobile apps.

• Lua

  Led · Series A · Jul 2014

  Lua is a mobile-first communications platform launched out of TechStars in 2013 to serve mobile workforces such as construction crews, movie sets, hotels, and large venues. The product enables individual and group messages across departments and supports users with or without smartphones, including an acknowledgement button to mark tasks as being handled. Lua has launched Insights, a real-time metrics product that surfaces daily messaging volume, responsiveness, communication patterns across departments and roles, and activity hotspots by time and place. The company is positioning Insights to help customers improve business quality by analyzing how teams communicate. Lua currently charges $6 per user per month and has introduced a Professional tier at $10 per user per month that includes Insights and dedicated customer support. Financially, Lua raised a $7.5M Series A in May and has $10M in total funding, according to Crunchbase. Lua Technologies is a mobile workforce communication platform offering Android and iOS apps, a mobile web interface, and SMS functionality to coordinate large, distributed crews. Administrators can create groups (e.g., hair and makeup, camera crew) to target messages, broadcast to entire workforces, require a "copy that" acknowledgement, and share files and images. The product is positioned to replace inadequate email, SMS, or social networking for managing massive crews in mobile workplace environments. Lua launched from the entertainment industry (film sets) but targets other sectors such as construction, cruise ships, and retail. The company is pursuing expansion into new territories and is in talks with Jones Lang LaSalle for construction deployments. Financially, Lua recently closed a $2.5 million seed round led by IA Ventures with participation from several angel investors.

• Drizly

  Participated · Seed · Jan 2014

  Drizly Group operates an online marketplace for beer, wine and spirits that provides a transparent shopping experience where consumers can compare stores on price, delivery time and overall rating. The company is led by CEO Cory Rellas and is based in Boston, MA. It operates in 235 markets across North America through a network of 3,300 independent and chain retail partners. Drizly also houses Lantern, an independently operated online cannabis commerce company launched in March. Lantern is currently operating in Massachusetts and Michigan. Drizly intends to use new funds to further accelerate product and customer growth. Drizly operates an on-demand delivery app that displays local store prices and delivery or pick-up options for beer, wine and spirits. The company partners with approximately 1,000 brick-and-mortar liquor stores across the U.S. and Canada and says deliveries arrive in less than an hour. Drizly recently completed a $34.5 million financing, roughly doubling its prior $33 million in total funding. Over the past year it has added a CMO, CFO and head of HR and in late summer shifted co-founder Nick Rellas into an advisory role while Cory Rellas became CEO. The company made its first acquisition in July, absorbing Buttery and integrating that startup’s backend technology and employees. Drizly says Cory’s operational experience and time at Bain Capital position him to lead the company through its next stage of growth. Drizly operates a marketplace and commerce platform that lets local liquor stores list beer, wine and spirits, showing shoppers local prices and delivery or pickup options via web and mobile. The company has shifted from an on-demand delivery model toward a metasearch‑style marketplace for alcohol e-commerce. Stores pay a monthly licensing fee to use Drizly’s software and sell through its platform; Drizly sets prices per market based on local spend and delivery costs. The company is using recent capital to build new features and services, expand into more US regional, suburban and rural markets, and roll out in-store pickup nationwide. Drizly also plans to develop personalized recommendations to engage different customer segments, such as corporate bulk buyers and wine enthusiasts. The business faces competition from general food e-commerce players and other alcohol-focused apps but cites legal and infrastructure advantages from four years of work. Drizly provides technology infrastructure and an e-commerce platform that enables liquor retailers to offer on-demand delivery and manage orders. Users can browse a wide variety of beer, wine and spirits and see delivery windows and prices from retail partners. Retail partners receive orders through Drizly and fulfill deliveries with their own staff, paying Drizly a slice of each transaction. Drizly Connect, launched earlier this summer, offers longer delivery windows up to 48 hours and positions the company as an Amazon Prime–like option for alcohol. According to CEO Nick Rellas, around 40% of orders on the platform are placed at least 36 hours in advance. The company currently serves 23 markets and is on pace to be in 30 markets, including some in Canada, by the end of the year. With this round, Drizly’s total funding stands at $32.8 million. Drizly operates a mobile app that lets users order spirits, beer and wine from local liquor stores and have them delivered. The system integrates with liquor stores' POS so orders flow directly to vendors for fulfillment, avoiding the need to build Drizly-owned delivery infrastructure. Drizly intentionally partners with stores that already offer delivery and charges vendors a monthly licensing fee that varies by location and transaction volume. The service is handling orders in the low tens of thousands each month and is reporting roughly 25% month-over-month growth across major markets. Drizly is currently live in multiple U.S. cities and aims to expand to about 30 markets by year-end. A partnership with the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America gives Drizly access to a network of wholesalers to help onboard more vendors.

No current team members are available.