Participated · Seed · Jan 2023

Hollywood Unlocked operates an exclusive entertainment news platform led by CEO Jason Lee. The site delivers celebrity news and original, candid content positioned at the intersection of fans and influencers. It is based in Los Angeles, CA and emphasizes exclusive and authentic storytelling. The company raised approximately $1.7M in Seed funding. It plans to use the proceeds to further develop its technology platform, expand the business, and support operations.

Participated · Seed · Nov 2022

BuildWithin offers a software platform that enables employers to create, manage and expand apprenticeship and workplace training programs, combining workplace monitoring, learning, task management and real-time feedback. The product is designed to make apprenticeships scalable, help employers stay in compliance, optimize salary spend and improve on-the-job experiences. The company was founded by Michelle Rhee and Dr. Ximena Hartsock and is based in Fairfax, Va. BuildWithin reported 300% revenue growth in the first nine months of 2022 and anticipates similar growth for the remainder of the year. The launch includes $2.4M in pre-seed funding plus roughly $8M in government grants, and the pre-seed proceeds will be used to expand headcount and fund product enhancements. BuildWithin is an approved national intermediary with the U.S. Department of Labor and will use a Department of Labor grant to establish apprenticeship hubs in five jurisdictions; customers include Cyangate Technologies, Northern Virginia Technology Council, the DC Downtown Improvement District, and George Washington University.

Participated · Series B · Oct 2022

Partake Foods, founded in 2016, produces allergy-friendly snacks and mixes (cookies in multiple flavors, baking mixes, and pancake and waffle mixes) and operates with products made in a top-nine allergen-free facility. Allergy-friendliness is core to the brand and its product testing and manufacturing practices. Distribution expanded from about 5,000 stores at the end of 2021 to roughly 9,000 stores, including Target, Whole Foods, Walmart, and Kroger, and the products also appear on American Airlines flights and in certain offices. Revenue grew 200% between 2020 and 2021 and 100% between 2021 and 2022; headcount rose from one employee in 2020 to 20 in 2022. The company has raised $19 million to date and used the new capital to support hiring, retail sales leadership, operations, marketing, and product innovation. Planned initiatives include further distribution expansion, seasonal flavors, a new product category, partnerships with national brands, more hiring, and expanding channels beyond the grocery aisle.

Participated · Series A · May 2022

Altro is a credit-building platform that leverages recurring monthly expenses and streaming/digital subscriptions to help members build or rebuild credit. The company issues the Altro Credit Builder Card through Hatch Bank and runs on the Discover Global Network. Altro reports to all three major credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax) and has expanded availability to residents in 47 U.S. states. The company offers a free membership with financial-literacy content and community events, and a Premium Membership priced at $9.99 that includes the Altro Credit Builder Card and additional in-app experiences. Altro recently launched an updated app, Altro: Culture & Finance, and highlights partnerships and support from celebrity investors as part of its growth and product rollout. Altro builds a platform that finds users’ recurring transactions (Netflix, Spotify, Hulu, Apple Music, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, and others) and connects them to a tradeline reported to all three credit bureaus to improve FICO scores. Founded in December 2019 (originally Perch Credit), the company began by identifying subscription spend and linking it to credit reporting rather than creating a proprietary score. By its December 2020 seed it had a couple thousand customers, and by 2021 the app had over 200,000 downloads and went viral after Marcy Ventures wrote about it, producing thousands of videos and a waitlist with over 3,000 immediate responses. Altro’s app is free for users; the company monetizes via interchange and subscription-partner fees, taking a fixed percentage of user payments through relationships with Visa and Mastercard. The startup also offers over 350 educational audio clips to improve financial literacy and engagement. Near-term plans include growing its credit and financial literacy program, hiring a marketing team to scale acquisition, and reintroducing rent-payment reporting.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2022

BoxedUp offers the BoxedUp Storefront, a licensed platform that lets equipment rental companies manage inventory, invoices, orders, and delivery logistics in one place. The startup targets legacy rental industries such as portable storage, dumpster, and welding and positions itself as a "Shopify for rentals" addressing the $300 billion B2B equipment rental market. BoxedUp was founded and is headquartered in Seattle and was built by a leadership team of former Amazon employees including CEO Donald Boone, VP of Sales Biagio Sarich, and CTO Robison Santos. The company employs eight people and plans to add two full-time employees in the third quarter. CEO Donald Boone relocated to Atlanta to continue scaling the business. Financially, BoxedUp raised a $2.85 million seed round after previously raising $2.3 million in a pre-seed in March 2022. BoxedUp operates a marketplace that aggregates listings from individual owners, local rental shops and manufacturers to make high-end video equipment accessible to creators. The company began as a rental business providing camera kits for video conferences and virtual events and landed early customers including Blavity, NPR, Amazon and Google. It initially stocked equipment and worked with manufacturers on open-box items, but has since shifted to a platform model that empowers mom-and-pop rental shops and individual owner-operators. BoxedUp focuses on the long tail of small and mid-size creators who currently rely on ad-hoc email and social media rental workflows. The company recently closed a $2.3 million funding round and plans to use the investment to upgrade fulfillment capabilities, enable same-day delivery in key markets, and expand engineering and operations headcount. For now the marketplace concentrates on the U.S. market while building out those fulfillment and operational capabilities.