Participated · Series A · Jan 2023

HopDrive provides on-demand short-distance vehicle transportation for automotive businesses, supporting concierge appointment pickups, at-home test drives, vehicle purchase deliveries, and fleet movements. The company was founded in 2018 by CEO Nick Mottas and is based in Richmond, VA. In 2022 HopDrive doubled its geographic footprint from 4 to 9 markets, including Richmond, Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston. The company plans to expand to Orlando, Baltimore, and Nashville within the next 90 days and to an additional 20 markets over the next two years. HopDrive closed an $8M Series A and intends to use the funds to accelerate development of its technology platform, make key hires to support its customer base, and fuel a significant increase in its nationwide footprint.

Participated · Series B · Aug 2021

Car IQ is a San Francisco-based vehicle payments company whose flagship product, Car IQ Pay, uses machine identity verification to allow vehicles to connect directly with banks and service providers and make purchases without a physical credit card. Car IQ Pay automates payments for commercial fleets for fuel, tolls, and parking by leveraging vehicle data to help manage spending, generate insights, and reduce fraud. The service is accepted at over 21,500 fuel stations nationwide, including Shell and Sunoco. The company raised an additional $15M in Series B funding, bringing total capital raised to $42M. Car IQ plans to use the funds to accelerate expansion of its payment platform and to add new commerce categories such as electric vehicle charging, repairs, registration, and insurance. The company is led by CEO Sterling Pratz. Car IQ is the first payment solution developed specifically for vehicles and fleets, enabling vehicles to transact directly, securely, and autonomously with merchants. Its contactless payment network allows connected cars and trucks to pay for services including fueling, tolling, parking, and more without adding extra hardware or requiring a human credit card. The company’s patent-pending “Know Your Machine℠” technology uniquely authenticates vehicles and embeds security elements into the payment stream to enable banks and merchants to authorize vehicle-initiated purchases. Car IQ positions its offering as a replacement for incumbent fleet card products, aiming to reduce fraud risk and eliminate tedious back-office reconciliation for fleets and merchants. Leadership describes machine banking as the future and says the technology can expand beyond vehicles to enable IoT devices to pay autonomously. The company recently closed a $15 million Series B to broaden relationships, expand into new markets, and add features to its offering. Car IQ builds a vehicle payment gateway to enable cars to autonomously connect to banking networks and pay for services, removing the need for credit cards in vehicle service and payment workflows. The platform targets automotive OEMs, financial institutions, and third-party service providers, with a focus on fleet managers, car-sharing services, ride-sharing platforms, and commercial fleets. Car IQ’s dynamic identity management leverages vehicle sensor data to create a unique digital vehicle fingerprint, enabling direct connections to payment networks and improving data governance at the vehicle level. This approach aims to reduce fraud risk, add transaction transparency, and streamline operations for fleet managers. The company says it will grow its team, scale operations, and focus on powering full machine commerce as it executes its roadmap. Sterling Pratz, founder and CEO, launched Car IQ after previously founding Autonet Mobile, which was acquired by Lear Corp.

Participated · Series A · Aug 2021

CHAMP Titles builds and operates CHAMPgov, a cloud-based system of record that lets state motor vehicle agencies digitize titles, registrations, liens, driver’s licenses, and related workflows. The company’s patented technology replaces paper-heavy legacy DMV infrastructure with an end-to-end electronic platform used by dealers, insurers, lenders, fleets, and consumers. More than 35 million Americans can now access CHAMP’s services through state contracts, and tens of millions of transactions have already run on the system. States adopting the platform reportedly cut processing times from 40-60 days to mere hours while eliminating millions of paper documents. In 2024 the firm expanded into Louisiana for both Vehicle and Driver Services, and it is commercializing the National Digital Titling Clearinghouse for interstate transactions. CHAMP operates on a pay-as-you-transact SaaS model, carries patents around digital titling, and has been recognized on the Inc. 5000 and Deloitte Technology Fast 500 lists. Founded in 2018, the Cleveland-based company has raised more than $100 million to date to fuel continued nationwide adoption.

Led · Series D · Jun 2021

Deserve offers a highly configurable, cloud-native credit card platform that enables partners to rapidly deploy white-label and co-branded card programs using APIs and SDKs. The company uses machine learning and alternative data to provide underwriting solutions that expand financial access. Deserve has launched programs for partners including BlockFi, M1 Finance, OppFi, Seneca Women, Notre Dame Global Partnerships, and KrowdFit. It plans to roll out card programs that help consumers manage subscriptions, augment BNPL, unlock home equity, and serve SMB and commercial customers. Financially, Deserve completed a $50 million Series D in October 2021 and reported 650% growth in transaction volume and 800% growth in receivables in 2021. The company has received recognition from Financial Times/Statista, Tearsheet, LendIt, and Inc. for its growth and platform. Deserve provides a mobile-centric, highly configurable credit-card-as-a-service platform powered by APIs and SDKs that lets partners apply, activate and provision cards in digital wallets within minutes. The platform leverages machine learning and alternative data to deliver underwriting that expands financial access for consumers. Deserve partners with banks, fintechs, brands, universities and associations to develop and rapidly deploy white-label and co-branded card programs. It has integrated with Visa instant issuance and focuses on differentiated reward structures, including nontraditional rewards such as crypto. Earlier this year Deserve and Visa partnered with BlockFi to launch a crypto rewards credit card that has seen immediate adoption. The company is venture-backed and positions its product to scale embedded, mobile-first card programs for financial institutions and consumer brands. Deserve offers a credit card-as-a-service platform that replaces traditional plastic cards with mobile-first, API/SDK-enabled software for instant issuance, wallet provisioning and embedded card programs. The platform uses machine learning and AI across the cardholder lifecycle and enhanced underwriting that leverages income and employment data beyond FICO to improve approvals and portfolio performance. Deserve’s modular services include omnichannel customer support, business analytics for portfolio management, and integrations via Mastercard’s Digital First Program for secure instant issuance. Its customers and partners include banks, fintechs and brands such as Sallie Mae, BlockFi, OppFi, Seneca Women and Notre Dame cards. The company says the product suite can power differentiated rewards (including crypto rewards) and enable rapid deployment of white-label and co-branded credit card programs. Financially, Deserve announced a $50 million Series D to accelerate its roadmap and scale the credit card stack for partners. Deserve is a Menlo Park, CA-based real-time credit card company that provides a platform for partners to launch and underwrite tailored credit card products. The company uses machine learning and alternative data to underwrite customers for specific target audiences and offers a mobile financial management app with credit education, cashback rewards and incentive programs from Mastercard, Amazon and Priority Pass. Deserve partners with universities, associations, financial institutions, fintechs and consumer brands to develop, deploy and power white-label and co-branded card programs. Led by CEO and co-founder Kalpesh Kapadia, the company serves clients including Sallie Mae, the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Honor Society. Deserve secured $50M in equity funding to further develop its offering, hire engineers and data scientists, build out platform infrastructure, tools, APIs and machine-learning capabilities, and expand its B2B sales and marketing division. The round was led by Goldman Sachs with participation from existing backers Accel, Aspect Ventures, Pelion Venture Partners, Sallie Mae and Mission Holdings. Deserve is an analytics-based financial technology company that uses machine learning and alternative data to help people build credit and achieve financial independence. Led by founder and CEO Kalpesh Kapadia and based in Menlo Park, CA, the company offers credit products and recently introduced a mobile app for cardholders to manage finances, build credit, and earn rewards. The app includes a financial literacy section with credit education, videos, and blogs. Deserve is partnering with key partners to launch a perks program that provides access to MasterCard Premium benefits such as car rental collision damage waiver, travel assistance, extended warranty, roadside assistance, price protection, and ID theft protection. It has served tens of thousands of customers from over 160 countries and at more than 1,800 universities across all 50 states. The company intends to use the funding to further scale its platform and infrastructure.

Participated · Series D · Nov 2020

Better.com is a digital mortgage lender that is going public via a SPAC and has recently broadened its offerings to include insurance products. The company amended its financing agreement with SPAC backer Aurora Acquisition Corp. and SoftBank to accelerate funding and bolster its balance sheet. Under the new arrangement Better will receive half of a committed $1.5 billion immediately, and the company expects to have $1 billion in cash on its balance sheet by week’s end. The amendment replaces a prior structure in which approximately $950 million of a $1.78 billion committed financing package would have been used to purchase existing shares rather than fund the company directly. Better says the revised terms do not change its implied valuation of $6.9 billion. Management says the capital will be used to double down on existing businesses, build a custom-first home purchase experience and launch new post-close homeownership products and services. Better.com operates an online mortgage platform focused on digitizing home-loan origination and refinancing. The company says the pandemic and low rates accelerated demand, driving rapid growth in loan volume and staff. Better.com funded $25 billion in loan volume in 2020, funded $14 billion in Q1 2021, and is currently funding over $4 billion in loans per month. Headcount has expanded quickly — the company reported about 4,000 employees in October 2020 and says it now has roughly 6,000 employees. Management has discussed and been reported to be pursuing an IPO, and the company has engaged Morgan Stanley and Bank of America in planning. Better.com has raised over $900 million in total funding since its 2014 inception. Better.com digitized the mortgage process to provide a commission-free, transparent, digital model for financing homes. The company offers mortgage origination plus integrated access to title insurance, homeowners insurance and real estate agents on its platform. Better.com says it has funded $25B in home loans to date and provided over $7B in cumulative insurance coverage through its insurance divisions. Over the last year the company has grown its funded loan volume more than fourfold. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in New York, Better.com emphasizes growing its team and building out its technology to improve the homeownership experience. The company has raised over $400M in equity capital since inception. Better.com is a technology-driven homeownership platform that digitizes the mortgage process with eSign, instant loan estimates, rapid pre-approvals and non‑commissioned loan consultants. The company says it can close a typical mortgage in 21 days versus an industry average of 42 days and advertises average borrower savings of more than $3,000 up front. Founded in 2016 by Vishal Garg after a slow traditional mortgage experience, Better.com emphasizes speed, lower costs and end‑to‑end digital workflows. It has grown 3x year‑over‑year, is funding about $375 million in mortgages per month, funded $1 billion of loans in Q2, and is on track to lend over $4 billion in 2019; since inception it has funded more than $4 billion in loans. The company closed a $160 million Series C, bringing total funding to $254 million, and plans to use capital to accelerate product development, expand partnerships, grow the team and scale the platform. Better.com recently moved its headquarters to 7 World Trade Center and has opened additional offices in Irvine, Oakland and Charlotte. Better.com operates an online mortgage platform focused on streamlining mortgage origination and delivering a digital customer experience. The company recently struck a strategic partnership with Ally Bank in which Better will handle most of Ally’s housing loan operations. Ally Bank’s investment arm, Ally Ventures, is investing $20 million as part of the deal. That $20 million is an add-on to Better.com’s $75 million Series C from earlier this year and the transaction values the company at about $550 million. Better.com originated $1.3 billion in mortgages across 30 states last year (triple the prior year) and expects to reach $3 billion in mortgage originations in 2019. The company plans to pilot the new capabilities in nine states and roll them out across the U.S. by the end of 2019. Founders and senior leaders named in the article include CEO Vishal Garg, head of operations Eric Wilson, CTO Erik Bernhardsson, and head of financial products Viral Shah.