Participated · Equity · Jun 2022

Playter is a London-based buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform targeting small and medium-sized enterprises. Its platform lets businesses dictate payment terms and spread costs over six or 12 months while ensuring suppliers are paid within 24 hours. SMEs can access funds within 24 hours from application and use the product for software, agency fees, rent, marketing and other payments. Playter positions its offer as a B2B BNPL solution distinct from consumer BNPL and aims to help businesses scale regardless of market conditions. Financially, the company raised a $1.7M seed in March and has now closed a $55M funding round composed of equity and debt (split undisclosed). Jamie Beaumont is the founder and CEO. Playter offers a buy now, pay later (BNPL) invoicing platform that brings BNPL to the B2B space and lets companies pay for professional services invoices. The platform allows businesses to unlock up to £300k with no interest costs or revenue sharing. Playter charges a subscription fee starting from £550 per month. Since its inception in 2021 it has served clients across technology and consumer finance, including REalyse and Wiserfunding. Led by CEO Jamie Beaumont and based in London, the company plans to use new funding to continue expanding operations and its business reach. The service is positioned to help startups scale by smoothing cash flow for professional services spend. Playter Pay provides a Hire Now, Pay Later product that enables SMEs to spread the cost of recruitment invoices over six months while ensuring recruitment agencies are paid within 24 hours. The platform is aimed at reducing the up-front cost barrier for SMEs and helping recruiters focus on finding candidates. Some of the U.K.'s fastest-growing tech startups have already committed to the Playter platform, including a customer with £20m in annual revenues. The company raised £1 million in a round composed of both debt and equity to expand its operations. Founder Jamie Beaumont conceived the product to solve cashflow pain points for both recruiters and SMEs. Playter says the new funding will be used for recruitment, marketing and improving customer user experience.

Participated · Seed · Jun 2022

Kaleidoco builds augmented reality experiences and a mixed-reality Particle Ink Metaverse, using patent-pending Augmented Reality Multi-Viewer technology and its Augmented Unification Technology. The company debuted Particle Ink at TED2022, synchronizing nearly 1,400 in-venue devices to deliver AR, projection mapping, and live performance to attendees and a global broadcast. Kaleidoco opened a live portal, Particle Ink: The Speed of Dark, in the Las Vegas Arts District and runs scheduled in-person experiences. Later this year it plans to release its first AR NFT collection and a GameFi experience built on its platform. Co-founders and co-CEOs Jennifer Tuft and Cassandra Rosenthal lead the company and emphasize AR as a foundation for a metaverse grounded in the physical world. The company recently raised capital to accelerate growth through key hires and continued development of its AR Tech Platform and Particle Ink Metaverse.

Participated · Seed · Mar 2022

Haystacks.AI aggregates primary structured real estate data and layers in unstructured ancillary and alternative data, including sentiment signals, to augment investment decisions at scale. The company is building a best-in-class automated underwriting tool to efficiently source, acquire, and manage single-family rental (SFR) properties. Its platform targets fund managers and institutional investors seeking clearer intelligence in opaque asset classes such as SFR. Haystacks.AI plans to accelerate product and platform development and expand hiring to meet growing demand. The company has also strengthened its leadership team with hires for acquisitions, product management, and capital strategy. Financially, the startup has attracted continued investor interest and additional seed funding to support growth. Haystacks.AI operates a real estate intelligence platform that layers numerous sources of unstructured ancillary and alternative data, including sentiment data, on top of primary structured real estate data to augment investment decisions at scale. The company is developing REMaaS (real estate management as a service) capabilities and a best-in-class automated underwriting tool to efficiently source, acquire, and manage single-family rental (SFR) properties. Haystacks.AI emphasizes AI and ML to collect and analyze massive amounts of data to deliver more accurate projections of key real estate metrics. The product roadmap focuses on accelerating product development and expanding the REMaaS offering to meet institutional demand. The company announced a $5 million seed financing to support these efforts. Haystacks.AI was founded in January 2021 and is presented in the article from New York.

Led · Equity · Dec 2021

Esme Learning Solutions is a Boston-based AI-powered digital learning platform that delivers executive professional development in partnership with top universities. Its courses blend high-quality video, live simulations, interactive media, and small-group exercises informed by over 15 years of cognitive science research on group collaboration. The company highlights a 97% course pass rate and offers programs in areas such as fintech, cybersecurity, AI leadership, and health ventures, instructed by leading experts. In 2021 Esme acquired the Riff Platform to enhance its collaboration capabilities. The company plans to use new funding to expand its marketing footprint, accelerate product innovation, and enhance R&D on new course formats and learning modes aimed at time‑poor executives. Esme Learning Solutions is a digital learning platform that delivers online executive education in partnership with leading universities. Its core product is an AI-enabled digital learning system that leverages dozens of lessons from cognitive and neuroscience to deliver an applied, collaborative learning experience. Courses teach technical skills and business best practices on topics such as cybersecurity and fintech. In less than a year since its 2019 founding, the company has worked with multiple top-tier universities; its current six-week offerings include the Oxford Fintech Programme and Oxford Cyber Security for Business Leaders, and it plans classes with MIT. The company intends to use new funds to expand operations, grow headcount and course offerings, and further develop its course methodology and core AI technology. In conjunction with the funding, Lynn Hollen Lees and Jon Cropper joined Esme Learning's advisory board.

Participated · Seed · Dec 2021

Pontoro, founded in late 2018 and based in Mountain View, Calif., is creating a patented, structurally differentiated technology solution to unlock greater access to institutional-grade private market real assets. The company's initial focus is addressing the $15 trillion shortfall in infrastructure debt finance. The platform is intended to enable a new type of enhanced private investment product with liquidity generally not readily available in traditional private investments, and features intended to ease fund administration. Pontoro will use the $4.6 million Seed II funding to further develop its technology to provide enhanced customization, pricing, and liquidity to market participants. The company expects to announce an expanded leadership team of seasoned finance and technology executives and is continuing discussions with institutional participants for advancement and adoption of the solution. The recent round was oversubscribed and came at a significant increase in valuation from its previous seed round. Pontoro is a financial technology company building an institutional-grade digital asset securitization and liquidity platform to expand investor participation in infrastructure debt finance. The platform curates bank-originated infrastructure project loans into tokenized and securitized digital asset pools, built on Ethereum and interoperating with other chains. It aims to reduce transaction times and settlement risk, improve cost efficiencies, and enable secondary liquidity and enhanced price discovery for institutional investors. Pontoro plans to accelerate platform development, deepen strategic partnerships with global banks and institutional investors, and continue recruiting senior talent. The company announced a $6 million preferred seed round to fund scaling and product rollout. Its senior leadership and advisors collectively bring a reported $100 billion infrastructure finance track record and experience from firms including J.P. Morgan Asset Management, BitGo, GE Energy Financial Services, InterGen, NASDAQ Private Markets, and the SEC.