Participated · Equity · Jan 2022

Angel Studios is a values-based distribution company that lets members of its Angel Guild decide which film and TV projects the studio will market and distribute. The company is based in Provo, Utah. The Angel Guild comprises over 379,000 audience members across more than 150 countries; 104,000 Guild members in 155 countries have invested nearly $80 million in projects distributed by the studio to date. Angel Studios highlighted the theatrical success of SOUND OF FREEDOM, which has earned $250 million at the box office. The studio reported that filmmakers submitted over 900 projects to the Angel Guild from April 2022 to April 2023, of which only 13 made it through the process. Proceeds from the recent offering will be used to grow the Angel Guild and to support development and production of a lineup of new films and TV series across diverse genres and themes. Angel Studios is a community-driven movie studio and streaming platform co-founded by Neal and Jeffrey Harmon that empowers audiences to decide what content gets produced. Creators pitch projects on the platform and angel investors fund the ones they back via the Angel Funding Portal. Post-production, Angel delivers content directly to viewers and relies on fans to share projects virally. The model has produced several highly viewed crowdfunded franchises, including The Chosen (viewed over 300 million times) and Dry Bar Comedy (about one billion views a year). The Wingfeather Saga, described as the world’s #1 crowdfunded animated kids show, is currently in production. With recent fundraising, the company plans to improve its streaming platform, expand marketing to new audiences, and develop its content pipeline for 2022 and beyond.

Participated · Series C · Jun 2018

Evolve BioSystems manufactures Evivo, a proprietary probiotic comprised of activated B. infantis EVC001 aimed at resolving infant gut dysbiosis (Newborn Gut Deficiency). Studies cited by the company show Evivo guides critical development of infants' digestive and immune systems by restoring a missing bacterium to the infant gut microbiome. The company reports that Evivo reduces potentially pathogenic bacteria by 80 percent and significantly reduces intestinal inflammation. Evolve BioSystems announced it completed a first close in a $55 million Series D round of funding. That first close was led by Cargill and Manna Tree. The company is based in Davis, CA. Evolve BioSystems is a Davis, CA–based company that develops products to establish, restore, and maintain a healthy gut microbiome. Its flagship infant probiotic product, Evivo, is an activated form of Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis (B. infantis EVC001). The company completed a $40M Series C financing to support growth. Evolve plans to use the funds to expand Evivo availability in the US and worldwide, develop products for age segments beyond infants, and accelerate efforts to bring a microbiome diagnostic test to market. A spin-out from the Foods for Health Institute at the University of California, Davis, the company is led by CEO Tim Brown. The Gates Foundation will expand its partnership with Evolve to investigate Evivo's potential to help infants suffering from severe acute malnutrition and to study the role of B. infantis alongside breastfeeding in supporting healthy growth and preventing infection. Evolve BioSystems develops products to establish, restore, and maintain a healthy human gut microbiome, with a focus on newborns. Its core offerings include activated probiotic and prebiotic products intended to restore the infant gut microbiome to its natural state and support proper metabolic and immune development. The company is a spin-out from the Foods for Health Institute at the University of California, Davis and is led by CEO Dr. David Kyle. Evolve is applying its discovery platform to address gut dysbiosis across the human life cycle and in various animal species. It is undertaking further clinical studies to build out its microbiome-based solutions. The company completed a $20M Series B financing to support clinical activities, operational expansion, product launches, and animal health product development. Evolve BioSystems is a Davis, California–based microbiotics company developing proprietary probiotic and prebiotic solutions to address dysbiosis in the infant microbiome. Led by CEO Dr. David Kyle, the company is undertaking multiple clinical trials to validate its assets. Evolve is a spin-out from the Foods For Health Institute at the University of California, Davis, and previously closed a seed funding round in 2014. The company completed a $9M Series A to support ongoing clinical activities, operational expansion, and preparations for commercial launch. Its product focus targets microbiome disruption resulting from pre-term birth, Caesarean-section deliveries, and exclusive use of infant formula.

Participated · Series A · Aug 2016

kubo.financiero operates a P2P lending platform in Mexico that connects individual investors with borrowers using technology and data to underwrite loans. The platform issues loans ranging from US$400 to $4,100 with terms of 4 to 36 months for uses including working capital, fixed assets, education fees and loan pre-payment. The company has provided over 4,700 loans totalling $35M since 2012, funded by about 500 individual investors. Led by founder and CEO Vicente Fenoll, kubo.financiero intends to use the new capital to continue expanding operations. The articles describe the recent fundraise as a Series A round; no additional financial covenants or debt instruments are mentioned. No other past round sizes or founding year beyond the "since 2012" metric are specified in the articles. Kubo Financiero is a Mexican startup specializing in peer-to-peer lending and financial-services technology. The company is participada by the accelerator Wayra and has previously counted Vander Capital among its backers. It aims to create a microfinance marketplace to connect supply and demand for financial resources. As of the article, Kubo reported 5,200 credit applications and has formalized 1,200 loans. Most of those loans have been for companies needing financing for productive activity. The company closed a financing round to support its growth and marketplace development.

Participated · Seed · Jul 2016

Mural builds a visual collaboration space — a digital whiteboard — aimed at teams doing creative and collaborative work remotely or in hybrid setups. The company benefited from COVID-driven remote work adoption and argues hybrid and distributed office footprints will sustain demand for its product. Mural disclosed it tripled its annual recurring revenue in the last year and has tripled ARR in each of the past two years. Customers generating $100,000 in ARR tripled to more than 100 organizations, and the company now has seven customers each contributing at least $1,000,000 in ARR. Management says net dollar retention is strong and that the company has retained efficiency while scaling. The firm plans to use its capital and valuation upside to pursue smaller acquisitions and talent as needed. MURAL provides a whiteboard-like digital environment that enables visual collaboration and remote brainstorming. The company has seen accelerated growth in 2020 as remote-work demand increased. MURAL disclosed it tripled its annual recurring revenue (ARR) in the last year and added “over a million” monthly active users in 2020; prior to 2020 its monthly actives were in the “hundreds of thousands.” Management plans to deploy the new capital toward global go-to-market capabilities, product work, and community engagement initiatives, including strengthening its consultant network. Mariano Suarez-Battan is CEO, and the company believes it is operating in a large horizontal market with room to expand. TechCrunch reported the Series B was a minority investment and that the company expects the pandemic-driven shift to remote work to continue fueling demand. Mural builds visual collaboration software and digital whiteboards designed for team and enterprise use. The product targets remote-work and workplace collaboration trends and is marketed with a land‑and‑expand sales motion. IBM was the company’s first and biggest customer, and today most revenue comes from large firms. The company reports six‑figure deals and a couple of customers that generate more than $1 million per year, indicating notable revenue traction. Mural has grown in a capital‑efficient way, having raised only a few million prior to its recent financing. Management says the new capital will be used to hire and build teams that can work with consultants and accelerate go‑to‑market efforts. Mural is a San Francisco- and Buenos Aires-based provider of remote design and collaboration software. Its core product is a visual collaboration tool that lets creative people visually organize ideas, workshop content and mix in multimedia components to facilitate conversations. The company counts customers such as IBM, Steelcase, Stanford and Disney, which it uses to scale design process and culture. Mural closed a $1.35M seed funding round to support its growth. It also secured a relationship with IBM after completing IDEO’s Startup in Residence program. Mariano Suarez-Battan is co-founder and CEO. Mural.ly is a web-based creative collaboration platform that offers a scrollable virtual canvas where users arrange websites, photos, audio and other media to collect and share ideas. The product emphasizes free-form brainstorming and real-time group collaboration rather than narrative-driven presentations. It integrates content from across the web, including maps, Pinterest content, Dropbox files and Wikipedia entries, and is optimized for touch devices like the iPad. The company grew out of game-design thinking and was founded by Mariano Suarez Battan, who previously built Three Melons. Mural.ly opened to the public alongside the announcement of a seed funding round. The team is targeting creative agencies and design professionals as early adopters.

Led · Series A · Dec 2015

Founded in 2012, Clip built its business helping cash-reliant merchants accept card payments and has since expanded into software, loans and business management tools. The company is launching a consumer digital wallet—developed with Ant International, Mastercard and TelevisaUnivision—to give users digital accounts for daily payments, banking services and credit products. Clip plans to scale its cash-onramp network from 28,000 to 100,000 deposit points to bring more consumers into the formal financial system. Management says the product targets cash users and small merchants to drive inclusion in a market where many small purchases remain cash-based. Financially, Clip has attracted large strategic and financial backers over time, including a $250 million SoftBank-led round in 2021 and a $100 million Morgan Stanley Tactical Value investment in June 2024, and was valued above $2.5 billion in the current raise.