• Perlara

  Participated · Equity · Nov 2017

  Perlara is a public benefit corporation and drug discovery platform based in South San Francisco, CA, led by founder and CEO Ethan Perlstein, PhD. It conducts discovery journeys called PerlQuests with families and patient organizations to develop treatments for rare diseases. The company's first PerlQuests target Niemann‑Pick C Disease (NPC), Niemann‑Pick A Disease (NPA), NGLY1 deficiency, and PMM2‑CDG; learnings from the NPC PerlQuest may inform Alzheimer’s candidates. Its initial PerlQuest partners are Grace Science Foundation, Wylder Nation Foundation, and Maggie’s PMM2‑CDG Cure. Perlara intends to use the new funds to advance programs, discover novel lead compounds for its first three PerlQuest partners, and double its disease pipeline by launching six new PerlQuests. Since its 2014 founding the company has raised $9.9M in total. Perlstein Lab (PLab) builds an automated drug-discovery platform that uses CRISPR-edited small animals (yeast, worms, flies, fish and sometimes mice) to model single-gene rare diseases and screen thousands of chemical compounds. The platform tests live organisms rather than cell cultures, which the company cites as a key differentiator versus many Big Pharma approaches. PLab focuses initially on single-gene rare diseases (about half of rare diseases) because they are simpler to model and quicker to screen at scale. The company plans to add a predictive learning model to the platform to accelerate insight generation and improve efficiency over time. Go-to-market strategies include serving as a lead-generation or accelerator partner to larger pharmaceutical companies and a second model that works directly with patient families to spin ultra-rare disease programs into separate startups, with PLab taking a cut. Financially, the articles report prior raises and a recent convertible note: PLab had raised $2.5M from several investors and has also raised a $1M convertible note (see funding details).

• Finova Financial

  Led · Equity · Aug 2016

  Finova Financial builds fair, affordable digital financial technologies and has deployed consumer-facing financial products. The company reports millions in revenue and rapid growth. Finova has raised over $100M in venture capital and private equity. It aims to create a more inclusive financial system and provide a path to financial health for the roughly 2 billion people outside the traditional financial system. Management is pursuing tokenization and new capital-raising models — notably the JOBS Crypto Offering (JCO) and security tokens — to enable alternative liquidity pathways. Founded in 2015, Finova is working with industry partners and the Institute for Blockchain Innovation to establish standards for tokenized offerings. Finova Financial builds all-digital financial products aimed at Americans underserved by traditional banks, focusing on affordable alternatives to high‑cost short‑term credit. Its flagship product is the Car Equity Line of Credit (CLOC), which offers fast emergency loans based on car equity and operates in Florida, California, Tennessee, New Mexico, South Carolina, Oregon and Arizona. Finova also offers an Automobile‑Secured Prepaid Card that can be funded with cash or car equity to help consumers avoid check‑cashing fees and receive paychecks faster. The company’s proprietary cloud‑based platform enables instant online pre‑qualification and payment‑against‑principal features, and CLOC has earned Consumer Affairs partner accreditation for delivering up to 50% lower cost than the national average on title loans. Management says the products target roughly 28% of Americans outside the formal financial system and about 50% of Americans without $400 for emergencies. The company positions its technology and product suite for rapid national expansion to serve this underserved population. Finova Financial operates an industry-first cloud- and mobile-based auto title lending platform that delivers its Car Equity Line of Credit (C-LOC) product. The C-LOC is marketed as costing about 70% less than the current national average and provides a 12-month pathway back to financial health. The company emphasizes social impact and improved access to credit for the roughly 70 million financially underserved Americans. Finova plans to expand its all-digital lending platform and roll out additional digital financial services aimed at underserved consumers globally. The platform is intended to eliminate traditional high interest, inconvenient application processes and restrictive payment terms common in the auto title lending market. Finova was founded in 2015 and highlights cloud-native, around-the-clock access to capital via its online and mobile channels. Finova Financial operates a socially responsible online lending platform that uses technology, analytics and a fee structure to provide consumers with quick financing decisions. Its core product is a vehicle equity line of credit that the company says offers fast access to capital and a runway back to financial health. The platform is accessible from any computer or smartphone and is driven by the Finova Score, a proprietary, constantly learning credit-scoring system designed to assess consumers with bad or no credit. That system enables Finova to make quick funding decisions and provide access to funds in as little as 15 minutes. The company states its loans cost 50% lower than the national average. Leadership cited in the article includes Gregory Keough (CEO) and Derek Acree Esq. (Chief Operating and Legal Officer of National Financial Holdings, the parent company).

• AgriWebb

  Participated · Seed · Jul 2016

  AgriWebb offers an all-in-one livestock management software platform that simplifies farming operations and provides insights to improve ranch productivity and practices. The platform is used to manage over 23 million head of livestock across more than 150 million acres in 18 countries, with strong presence in Australia, the UK, the US, and Brazil. AgriWebb partners with major food companies and programs, including McDonald’s, USDA’s Climate Smart Commodities collaborations, and Cargill in Brazil. In May 2024 the company closed a $7.2M (AU$11M) funding round. The company plans to use the funds to enhance platform capabilities, particularly to connect on‑farm data with global food brands and retailers. AgriWebb focuses on beef cattle production customers and on integrating farm-level data with supply-chain partners. Founded in 2014 by fifth‑generation farmers, AgriWebb offers a connected livestock business management platform that turns everyday on‑farm data into actionable insights for profitability, efficiency, and sustainability. Its digital solutions are used to manage animal records, productivity and land stewardship across a unified agtech ecosystem the company is expanding. AgriWebb is trusted by over 16,000 farmers, manages more than 19 million animals and 136 million acres of land, and is adding roughly 250 new users each month. The company plans to roll out new partnerships, features and capabilities to support improved animal productivity and sustainable land stewardship and to expand early‑stage U.S. partnerships such as RanchBot and RanchSense. AgriWebb is also participating in USDA Partnerships for Climate‑Smart Commodities grant projects to launch carbon‑smart initiatives with partners led by Trust in Food and American Farmland Trust. AgriWebb offers a mobile-first farm-management and record-keeping app built around a visual, map-based interface with drag-and-drop functionality tailored for livestock producers. The product includes task lists per field, inputs tracking for pasture and complementary cropping, and decision-support reports on stocking rates, fertility, sales, treatments, and feed. Much data is currently entered by farmers, and the company is working to integrate electronic ID tags, soil sensors, and point-of-sale platforms to automate data flows and connect to supply chains. AgriWebb emphasizes a bottom-up approach targeting smaller producers who largely do not track animals individually; it cites that 80% of producers don’t track livestock individually. The company has over 300 clients across roughly 400–500 farms in Australia. Management plans to explore expansion into the US market in the future, likely via a local partner to adapt to varied livestock management techniques.

No current team members are available.