Participated · Seed · Sep 2025

benefitbay operates an ICHRA platform that partners with brokers, employers, and carriers to deliver personalized benefits solutions including enrollment, payments, compliance, and administration. The company positions itself to help employers transition from traditional group health plans to defined-contribution healthcare models. Led by CEO Brandy Thompson and headquartered in Kansas City, MO, benefitbay focuses on broker enablement and integrations with carriers and payroll providers. With the newly raised Series A, the company plans to expand its payments infrastructure and deepen direct carrier and payroll integrations to support growth. The funding is intended to accelerate product and go-to-market capabilities rather than disclose operating metrics; no revenue, user, or prior round figures were provided in the announcement.

Participated · Equity · Aug 2025

Boost My School provides a purpose-built fundraising platform that consolidates tools and workflows for K-12 advancement teams, covering annual giving, reunions, auctions, golf outings and giving days. The platform streamlines processes so schools can raise funds for operating budgets, scholarships, financial aid and staff benefits. Over the past school year Boost has served hundreds of schools (doubling year‑over‑year) and helped raise more than $100 million across 100,000 donors, including giving days and auctions that raised over $1 million. Customer metrics cited include a 98% retention rate and an 85 NPS. Boost was accepted into Blackbaud’s Social Good Startup Program and accelerator. The company plans to use the new funding to deepen its focus on K-12 advancement teams, expand its team, and enhance its platform.

Led · Equity · Jul 2025

Backstroke is a generative AI email marketing platform serving e-commerce brands. Its core suite includes predictive email and SMS content generation tools that customers use to increase revenue per email by 31% and cut time to build and deploy an email to under five minutes. Recent product enhancements include an AI Content Studio for producing visuals without photo shoots, Predictive Templates that automate over 75 personalized email variations per campaign, and Hero Lab for automated hero design with advanced editing tools. The company has hired Jim Goldman as Chief Information Security Officer to oversee enterprise-grade software and AI security. From June 2024 to June 2025 Backstroke reported 375% year-over-year growth in customer count and 447% growth in annual recurring revenue, underscoring accelerating market traction and customer adoption. Leadership says the funding will help ensure customers have the tools and support to stay ahead as AI-driven email marketing becomes standard practice. Backstroke offers a generative AI messaging platform that creates marketing content for email, SMS, and mobile push for B2C brands and retailers. Its system leverages a dataset from more than 10,000 brands, tracking and tagging millions of messages and their performance in over 200 different ways. That dataset, compiled over nearly three years, powers models that aim to generate high-performing marketing content. Early customers include ecommerce brands such as Pearl iZUMi, Nathan Sports, Lyssé and The Porch Swing Company. The company is led by R. J. Talyor and Allyson Talyor and intends to use new funding to expand operations and accelerate development efforts.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2024

Hummingbirds is a female-founded platform that matches hyperlocal creators with locally based brands to run targeted social campaigns and drive in-store and local purchase behavior. Brands launch city-specific campaigns on the platform and pay a fee to participate; creators receive rewards (gift cards, experiences, merchandise) and Hummingbirds takes 0% commission from creators. Creators are mostly everyday "nano" creators (up to 10,000 followers) with high engagement; the company says its approach can boost sales up to 14x and social engagement by 80%. The startup reports rapid growth over the past year: it has quadrupled revenue, doubled its community size to 11,000 creators, and now works with over 300 brand partners. Hummingbirds currently operates in more than 20 cities (examples include Des Moines, Madison, Nashville, and Omaha) and focuses on Middle America. The new capital will be used to expand into 20 more cities by 2025, including Atlanta, Charlotte, and Denver. Hummingbirds operates an online platform that connects businesses with hyperlocal content creators, called “hummingbirds,” who receive perks for trying brands and sharing their experiences on social media. The company expanded from three to 14 Midwest cities in 2023 and plans broader national growth in 2024. Hummingbirds intends to scale its platform to more than 30 U.S. cities in 2024 and target select mid-sized cities with between 300,000 to 1 million employable people. In 2024 the company will also offer paid opportunities for some content creators as part of a “community-led growth” strategy. CEO and co-founder Emily Steele said the company has a tech roadmap to give more locals the opportunity to drive awareness for brands and get rewarded. The article does not disclose revenue, valuation, or other financial metrics.

Led · Series A · Aug 2024

Your Money Line offers financial coaching as an employee benefit, pairing AI-powered software with empathetic live coaches to guide participants toward financial stability and confidence. The company serves hundreds of businesses, schools, and hospital systems to improve employee wellness, engagement, and retention. Led by founder and CEO Peter Dunn, the business positions its solution as a workplace benefit to support employees. The company intends to use new funding to accelerate development of its financial wellness solution. The fundraising and board additions signal investor confidence in its product and go-to-market approach. The company is based in Indianapolis, IN. Your Money Line (YML) provides a corporate financial wellness SaaS that connects employees and their families to one-on-one Certified Financial Planners® and Accredited Financial Counselors®, personalized action plans, and an interactive dashboard with dynamic graphs and charts. The platform includes hundreds of hours of e-learning webinars, courses, blogs and articles and offers 24/7 support via phone, email and chat. YML serves a client base of hundreds of organizations nationwide, including The University of Chicago, UT Health (University of Texas), Arapahoe County (CO), Pacers Sports and Entertainment, and Wayne Township (IN). The company emphasizes that it will not sell participants financial services products. YML has recently strengthened its leadership with hires of tech executives Matt Lubbers, Molly Fohrer and Doug Collins, and added Aman Brar to its board. The company plans to use new capital to invest in its software, marketing and distribution team, and the infrastructure needed to support its growing SaaS business.