Participated · Seed · Jan 2023

Caden provides users an encrypted “vault” that pulls analytics on movies watched, travel, purchases and other behavioral data and lets people opt in to monetize selected segments. Users connect services like Amazon, Uber and Netflix to Caden’s iOS app, view usage stats and choose which data to share or delete. The company anonymizes data before sharing with third parties and says consumers can opt out at any time. Caden has collected over a billion data points and has paid “hundreds of thousands” of dollars to users. It recently launched Caden AI, an assistant that uses shared behavioral data for personalized recommendations, and plans an enterprise product, Context AI, to let marketers query consumer behavior with text and visuals. The team is roughly 25 people based in New York, and the company intends to use new funding to expand that team, develop Caden AI and build more connections across retailers, loyalty programs, fitness platforms and streaming services. Caden is a user-centered personal data company building an Open Data platform that places users at the center of the data marketplace. Its mobile app aggregates first-party signals — what users watch, where they travel, and what they buy — and provides analytics on consumer profiles. Users can opt in to monetize their data in privacy-preserving ways, creating passive income streams without compromising privacy. For business customers, Caden offers ethically-sourced first-party data via a proprietary Knowledge Graph, with options for anonymized/aggregated consumption, Unique ID organization for ad tech, or identifiable use cases with explicit user consent. The company plans to launch the Caden platform publicly and further build out its New York City team. Caden’s flagship mobile product was in closed beta and slated for public release in Q1 2023, and the company had raised $6M in Seed funding, bringing total funds raised to $9.4M. Caden is a zero-party data platform built around an encrypted on-device vault and an API called Link that lets users pull data from accounts (e.g., e-mail, bank) into their vault. The vault surfaces insights to users and lets them grant, revoke, or alter permissions for specific companies. Users can opt to be compensated for sharing their data; the company likens the experience to a savings account. Caden came out of stealth with a $3.4M pre-seed round and plans to launch a beta mobile app in the next six months. The team began working on the technology nine months ago and is initially targeting consumer brands. The company positions itself as a privacy-first alternative as regulation (e.g., CCPA-style laws) makes third-party data collection more burdensome for companies.

Led · Seed · Mar 2022

Sweater operates a professionally managed venture fund that invests on behalf of retail investors, whom it calls “Members,” and provides investment breakdowns and company stories through an app launching soon. The team conducts due diligence and makes venture investments on behalf of those Members, enabling retail access to startup investing. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate growth and expand operations. Sweater was co-founded by Jesse Randall, Chad Lewkowski, and Matthew Klein and is based in Boulder, Colorado. The article does not disclose revenue or user metrics; its current disclosed financing is a $12M Seed round. The product focus is on making venture capital accessible and transparent to nonaccredited investors via a managed fund and accompanying app. Sweater operates a mobile-first venture investing platform that allows everyone to become investors in venture-backed startups. The company raised a $2.3M pre-seed financing to further develop its platform and accelerate its go-to-market strategy. In late November 2020 Sweater received SEC approval to pursue its proposed fund structure. The team is led by founders Jesse Randall, Chad Lewkowski, and Matthew Klein and includes former employees from SoFi, Dow Jones, and Lucid Software. Sweater plans to open a waitlist in early July 2021 with an expected public market launch in early 2022. The company is based in Boulder, CO.

Participated · Series B · Feb 2022

Zoomo builds high-performance utility e-bikes and fleet management software sold via weekly subscriptions to gig workers and as fleet solutions for enterprises. It offers servicing and support, with U.S. rider pricing typically between $20 and $35 per week and discounted rates via delivery‑app partnerships. The company is developing the Zoomo One e-bike, new vehicle form factors and accessories, and an end‑rider app, and is expanding its fleet and vehicle management offerings for mechanics and customers. Zoomo says it expanded to 16 cities across six countries since its 2017 founding and added Spain, France and Germany last year. The startup reported 4x global revenue growth and 20x enterprise business growth in 2021, and plans to hire more team members globally to support expansion. CEO Mina Nada told TechCrunch the company sees a future where last‑mile delivery runs on light electric vehicles supported by the Zoomo ecosystem. Zoomo builds heavy‑duty e-bikes and offers micromobility subscription services, fleet management software and a servicing network for couriers and enterprise fleets. Its business serves both B2B customers (including enterprise fleets like Domino's) and B2C channels through partnerships with gig platforms such as DoorDash. Zoomo offers weekly subscriptions that include servicing, ranging from $20 to $49 per week, and designs vehicles for high‑usage delivery conditions (customers report up to 50,000 kilometers per year on a bike). The company operates in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States and has expanded into cities including Manchester, Chicago, Valencia, Paris and Stuttgart. With the new funding, Zoomo plans to invest in its software platform, expand its servicing network, scale hardware into existing and new markets, and begin developing light vehicles for parcel and other urban delivery form factors. The funding structure combines equity to support product and platform development with asset‑backed debt to enable monthly subscription financing of its bikes. Zoomo is an Australian startup that electrifies delivery fleets by offering e-bike subscriptions to gig workers and enterprise customers. It provides a full-stack solution including custom-designed hardware, software, same-day servicing, and financing options to help partners deploy and manage fleets at scale. The company has expanded to more than 10,000 units globally and operates in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Clients include Uber Eats, DoorDash, Gorillas, Just Eat Takeaway and enterprise customers such as Cornucopia. Zoomo plans to use the new funding to expand into continental Europe and additional U.S. states, grow its consumer model beyond couriers to commuters, and invest in next-generation vehicle development. The company previously raised an $11 million Series A in August 2020. Zoomo, formerly Bolt Bikes, builds and sells electric bikes and offers them as a subscription product aimed initially at gig-economy delivery workers but now serving corporate clients and individual consumers. Its subscription includes the electric bike, fleet-management software, financing, servicing, 24-hour bike access, and accessories such as a battery charger, phone holder, USB port, secure U‑Lock and safety induction. The company operates sales and service centers in Sydney, New York and the U.K., and says the need for physical locations limits how quickly it can expand the subscription service. Zoomo plans to use the new funding to add sales and service centers in Los Angeles and Brisbane and to expand within New York while ramping up direct bike sales. It also plans to add corporate categories such as parcel, mail and grocery deliveries and to introduce models better suited for individual consumers. The company raised $11 million in fresh capital in a Series A round led by the Australian Clean Energy Finance Corporation. Bolt Bikes provides a subscription platform for electric bikes tailored to gig-economy delivery workers, bundling the vehicle with servicing, financing, fleet-management software and accessories. The company sells e-bikes but primarily rents them on week-to-week commercial contracts, offering 24-hour access and a first-week free trial. Subscriptions include a battery charger, phone holder, phone USB port, secure U-lock and safety induction. Bolt Bikes operates in Sydney and Melbourne as well as San Francisco and London, and Postmates has been piloting its rental program in San Francisco since June. The startup was founded in 2017 by Mina Nada and Michael Johnson. Management says it plans to increase its fleet and expand to more cities across the U.S., U.K. and Australia.

Participated · Series A · Dec 2021

Paradigm operates a zero-fee institutional liquidity network that connects institutional counterparties to source large and complex derivatives liquidity across centralized and decentralized venues. The platform provides workflow automation to execute multi-leg and multi-product strategies as single atomic transactions, reducing leg risk and execution costs. Paradigm is non-custodial, lets traders choose settlement venues, and offers products such as complex order books for spreads and combinations, spread matrices for futures, and loans rate curves. The company works with over 600 institutions and reports trading volumes have risen roughly 1,300% year-over-year to about $10 billion in total volume traded per month. In 2021 Paradigm increased headcount threefold and captured roughly 30% of global listed options volume. Management says it is focused on establishing a robust network before monetizing and plans to use new funding to build out its network of institutional traders, CeFi exchanges, and DeFi protocols, enhance 24/7 customer support, and expand product offerings. Paradigm is developing a decentralized order-book protocol that aims to unite liquidity from every crypto exchange into one giant pool. The product is being built as a lightweight, sidechain-like protocol independent of Ethereum to address speed and performance limitations of existing decentralized exchanges. Co-founders Liam Kovatch and Henry Harder, both on leave from Columbia, expect to show a beta by the end of the year. Financially, the Paradigm Foundation raised a $1 million equity seed led by Polychain Capital with participation from Dragonfly Capital Partners and Chapter One. The founders say the small round was oversubscribed and was intentionally capped at $1 million to remain capital efficient, citing 0x’s earlier seed as a reference. The protocol will allow exchanges and individuals to advertise liquidity on the same book, with the team predicting trading fees will decline as the network grows.

Led · Seed · Nov 2021

Options AI Financial is a broker-dealer led by CEO John Foley that aims to bring smart options to retail investors. The company's platform offers a visual approach to options trading, enabling investors to clearly see opportunity, compare strategies and manage positions. Options AI closed a $4.1M seed funding round. The round was led by Akuna Capital, Optiver Principal Strategic Investments and Miami International Holdings, Inc., with participation from ViewTrade Holdings. The company is expanding its team and plans to open an office in Chicago. The raise was reported by FinSMEs on 08/11/2021.