Participated · Equity · Nov 2019

VoltServer commercializes Fault Managed Power (FMP), a transmission technology that sends electricity in small, safety-checked packets embedded with data and sold under the brand Digital Electricity. The company manufactures FMP transmission products and supplies systems with extensive monitoring and control software that augment the hardware. VoltServer reports circuits installed in buildings including NFL stadiums, smart hotels, and indoor vertical farms. Led by CEO Steve Eaves and based in East Greenwich, RI, the company plans to use new funding to hire talent to accelerate product development. It intends to expand further into Communications, Intelligent Buildings, Indoor Agriculture, EV Charging, Data Centers, and other applications where rapid, lower-cost, data-enabled electricity distribution can benefit customers. The company raised new capital in 2023 to support those product and go-to-market efforts. VoltServer develops a packetized power-transmission system that overlays digital control and data onto electricity distribution, using a transmitter that breaks AC or DC into packets and a receiver that reassembles them. Its architecture incorporates digital signal processing and a semiconductor gateway similar to solar power converters to stop transmission when faults occur. The company combines hardware and software: customers buy transmitter/receiver boxes, third parties install them, and software applications track energy usage and manage outage responses. Roughly 700 stadiums, large offices and indoor grow facilities have deployed its technology; typical installations run from $30,000 to $1 million, and the largest installation is a lettuce farm in Florida. VoltServer is targeting intelligent building infrastructure, communications and indoor agriculture as core markets and says its technology can cut traditional power-transmission costs from about $36 per linear foot to less than $10. The company recently attracted a $7.4 million financing led by Sidewalk Labs and has raised $18 million to date from a group of energy-focused investors. VoltServer provides patented solutions that deliver electricity in a natively digital format by combining energy and data into energy packets transmitted from a VoltServer transmitter to a receiver. The transmitter verifies each packet and halts transmission if there is improper wiring, a short circuit, or a person touching the transmission lines. The company began shipping in early 2015 and currently powers 4G/LTE mobile services in many large sports stadiums, office towers, hotels, condominiums and medical buildings. VoltServer intends to use recent funding to support ongoing mobility deployments and trials worldwide and to expand its remote powering solutions into adjacent markets such as converged fiber optic communications (FTTx, POL), smart LED lighting, centralized battery-backed/critical power/UPS, data center and alternative energy applications. The company is led by founder and CEO Steve Eaves.

Participated · Series A · Apr 2014

Placester, founded in 2011, provides an all-in-one marketing toolkit for real estate professionals including lead-capturing websites, lead management, email marketing, marketing automation, analytics, MLS integration, natural language search and 24/7 support. The platform aims to help professionals grow their businesses online and via mobile with eye-catching visuals and integrated tools. The company employs more than 170 people across Boston and Chicago. Placester has expanded via acquisitions, buying RealSatisfied and OpenHomePro in 2016. Financially, the company has raised $100M in total funding to date. It intends to use new capital to continue developing and enhancing its toolkit. Placester offers a platform for real estate agents and brokers that provides websites, listing integrations, marketing automation, and specialized CRM solutions. The company has forged alliances with all regional multiple listing services (MLSs) in the U.S. and uses that data to power its services. Placester reports that one in five U.S. real estate agents uses its platform and has signed clients Keller Williams and RE/MAX, representing over 200,000 agents. Financially, Placester recently raised a $27M Series C, bringing total funding to $50M after a $15M round earlier this year. CEO and co‑founder Matt Barba said the company raised again quickly because it is at an inflection point and the new capital will enable rapid expansion. The company plans to use the funds to build mobile apps, improve real estate search and information sharing between agents and buyers, and to invest heavily in customer service and marketing. Placester provides a marketing platform for real estate professionals with property listing integration (through MLS), lead management, Facebook advertising and Google AdWords. The company is led by Matt Barba and Frederick Townes and is based in Boston, MA. It currently serves over 100,000 real estate professionals and plans to use new funding to expand its team. Placester closed a $15M financing and has raised $22M to date. The company intends to grow headcount from 50 to 100 employees in the next year. Two NEA partners will join the board in conjunction with the financing. Placester offers maintenance-free WordPress websites for real estate professionals that include setup, hosting and MLS fees and use the company’s technology to retrieve and update MLS data. Its sites are SEO-optimized and mobile/tablet-friendly. The company also built a publisher platform that provides consumer search, real estate inventory information and related ad products. Placester powers over 70,000 real estate professionals’ websites and reaches a broader community of more than 100,000. It is expanding via publisher partnerships, including an initial nationwide deal with Hearst to integrate Placester into local papers. Founded in 2009 by former real estate agent Matt Barba and a Techstars Boston graduate, the company has grown revenue and customer acquisition roughly 20% month-over-month for the past 12 months. Today the team is 34 people and is hiring across engineering, sales and marketing with the expectation of reaching the low 40s by year-end. Placester provides a freemium, maintenance-free website builder for realtors, enabling agents to launch WordPress-based, SEO-optimized, mobile-friendly sites in minutes with built-in MLS search. The company built its own technology to retrieve and update MLS data on the fly and currently covers about 85% of U.S. MLSes. It reports tens of thousands of realtors on the platform, with hundreds converted to the paid product (launched ~5 months prior) and user growth of roughly 20% month-over-month. Paid users pay $45/month for MLS search, search-indexed listing pages, premium themes, and phone/email support. Founded in 2009 by Matt Barba with co-founder Frederick Townes, Placester graduated TechStars Boston in 2011 and now operates with a 16-person team. The company plans to use new funding to add more themes, expand MLS coverage toward 95%, and launch a formal partner program to open the platform for third-party builders.

Participated · Series A · Apr 2014

flexReceipts provides an enhanced digital receipts solution that gives retailers a post-sale channel to communicate with customers. Its patent-pending software allows retailers to add social media links, videos and customized offers to digital receipts. The enriched receipts are designed to build customer loyalty by enabling custom video, product recommendations, targeted promotions and monitoring of spending habits and shopping trends. Led by CEO Tomas Diaz, the company plans to use recently raised funds to expand sales and marketing and further develop the solution. The company closed a $1.4M Series A financing to support those efforts. flexReceipts is headquartered in Orlando, Florida.

Participated · Seed · Jul 2012

DraftKings operates daily fantasy sports contests and builds its business around professional sports advertising and partnerships. The company spends heavily on marketing — it spent $156M on TV ads last year — and concentrates ad spend around the NFL season. DraftKings has spent the past year fighting dozens of state legislatures and courts to get daily fantasy sports legalized, a legislative battle that has consumed resources. The company hasn’t said how it will use the new funding, though the article notes the timing aligns with the NFL advertising season. Having team and league owners involved on the cap table (the article cites investors such as Robert Kraft and the MLB) is framed as helpful for maintaining relationships with professional leagues. Recent regulatory pressure and legal costs have pressured the company and its valuation over the past 12 months. DraftKings, founded in 2012 by Jason Robins, Matt Kalish and Paul Liberman, is a Boston, Mass.-based skill-based Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) gaming platform. It enables North American fans to compete in single-day online games for cash and prizes across a wide variety of professional and collegiate sports. The company is the exclusive DFS partner of Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, NASCAR, Ultimate Fighting Championship and Major League Soccer. DraftKings plans to use the new capital to continue building out its web and mobile products, launch internationally, and explore new vertical expansion opportunities. The article reports a $300M Series D raise to support those initiatives. DraftKings operates daily fantasy sports contests that let users enter new lineups frequently rather than committing to season-long leagues. Founded just two years ago, the company has grown rapidly and expects to pay out about $200 million in prizes this year, including four monthly $1 million prizes during the NFL season. DraftKings has raised nearly $75 million in outside financing to date, including a $41 million Series C led by The Raine Group and a prior $25 million round last November. The company has pursued user growth through acquisitions, buying DraftStreet (retaining much of the team and its New York City office) and acquiring StarStreet's assets and migrating those users to its platform. It plans to use the latest funding to accelerate customer acquisition ahead of the NFL season via TV, radio, digital and mobile channels and to invest in product development with a focus on mobile. DraftKings describes its business as seasonal for customer acquisition and aims to leverage The Raine Group's media, entertainment, and gaming connections to drive growth. DraftKings facilitates fantasy baseball, football, basketball and hockey matchups online and through a series of mobile apps. The company is 18 months old and has seen rapid user and revenue growth. Since August it has tripled its customer base and reported revenue growth of 10x year‑over‑year. About three-quarters of users who signed up in 2012 returned this year, and average users spend more than five hours per week on its site and mobile apps. DraftKings raised $24 million in a Series B led by Redpoint Ventures, with participation from GGV Capital, Atlas Venture, and BDS Ventures. The new funding follows a $7 million Series A raised six months earlier. DraftKings is a Boston-based provider of daily fantasy sports accessible online and via mobile, offering contests across fantasy baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. The company features daily contests with same-day settlement and salary-cap formatted games, and it offers both free and paid contests that pay cash prizes. Launched April 28, 2012, DraftKings has grown rapidly in its first year, becoming the #1 daily fantasy sports mobile app provider and launching contests in six sports. It has surpassed 1 million users across web and mobile, with the average user spending over three hours per week and playing 2.6 different sports. For the 2013 fantasy baseball season the company will award over $20M in cash prizes, including a currently running $5 Million Chase for the Crown tournament. DraftKings plans to use new funding to continue to perfect the customer experience and broadly market its online and mobile short-term fantasy sports offerings.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2012

On The Spot Systems is a Newton, MA-based provider of real-time mobile surveys that enable managers to collect immediate feedback from customers and employees. Its systems operate via smartphones, iPod touch, iPad or online and include a portal offering reporting and analytics tools. Led by co-founder and CEO Geoff Palmer, the company focuses on applications in food service and is pursuing opportunities in retail, healthcare and other service organizations. In January 2012 it closed a $750,000 seed funding round to support growth. The company plans to use the funding to grow its team and expand engineering, sales, marketing and customer support. It has added Scott Savitz, founder and former CEO of ShoeBuy, as an advisor to its management team.