Led · Equity · Feb 2022

Xplore offers Space as a Service®, providing data as a service, sensors as a service and satellites as a service to collect data from space for commercial, intelligence and climate customers. The company is accelerating hardware development of the Xcraft satellite data-collection platform at its 22,000 sq ft satellite manufacturing facility in Redmond. Leadership includes CEO Jeff Rich and Founder/COO Lisa Rich. Xplore plans to use new funding to accelerate growth, expand operations, hire additional team members and advance product development. In the past 24 months the company has received approximately $4M in non-dilutive funding and was selected for a $2M contract from the Pentagon’s National Security Innovation Capital. It has completed milestones on contracts from the U.S. Air Force, NOAA and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and has multiple flight programs in progress. Xplore provides Space as a Service via its Xcraft and LightCraft multi-mission platforms, offering hosted payloads, communications relay services and exclusive datasets. Its Xcraft ESPA-class platform is designed for LEO, cislunar space and destinations including Venus, Mars and asteroids. The company plans an Xcraft LEO (XLEO) mission in 2023 and is developing a family of Xplore Space Telescopes (XST) with missions planned in LEO and cislunar regions. Xplore has a Memorandum of Understanding with Accion Systems to host the TILE ion thruster on XLEO and has collaborated with W. M. Keck Observatory to accelerate XST timelines. Financially, Xplore announced a $2M contract award from National Security Innovation Capital (NSIC) within the Defense Innovation Unit to accelerate Xcraft development. The company operates from a 22,000 square foot campus in Redmond, Wash., and is recruiting space professionals for its flight programs.

Participated · Series B · Nov 2021

Mosaic Building Group is a construction tech startup that acts as a tech-enabled general contractor for production-scale residential development projects. Its software digitizes standard construction plans and automates the construction planning process to shorten build times, cut costs, reduce materials waste and improve construction quality. Mosaic has partnered with home builder Mandalay Homes to create an instant pipeline to deploy its technology. To date the company has completed 160 homes, has 195 under construction, and plans to build 400 homes over the next two years, with a residential development project pipeline worth more than $500M. Founded in 2015 and based in Phoenix, Arizona, Mosaic currently employs about 70 people and intends to double headcount by the end of 2022 while expanding outside Arizona by the end of next year. After the $44M Series B its total funding stands at $68.75M and the company aims to free developers to focus on land acquisition, sales, marketing and architecture by vertically integrating construction operations with its technology stack. Mosaic is a Phoenix-based proptech startup founded in 2015 that automates the construction planning process. Its software digitizes standard construction plans and identifies the best way for homes to be built onsite using the same materials, workers and procedures as traditional builders, with a focus on field operations. The platform aims to shorten build times, cut costs, reduce material waste and improve construction quality for homebuilders. Mosaic employed about 40 people and says its contracted, committed and cumulative revenue grew from $2 million at the start of 2019 to over $100 million today. That revenue growth is driven in part by a $100 million partnership with Arizona homebuilder Mandalay Homes, which commits to at least 400 homes over 24 months and has become Mosaic’s largest customer. The deal also assigns nearly 80 Mandalay workers to Mosaic, boosting its general contracting and construction capabilities.

Participated · Seed · Mar 2021

Afriex, founded in 2019 by Tope Alabi and John Obirije, provides instant, zero-fee cross-border transfers for Africans at home and in the diaspora. The startup uses stablecoins — buying cryptocurrency in one country and selling it in another — to offer faster transfers and better exchange rates than traditional remitters. Users can deposit cash on the app, send money to bank accounts or other users, and withdraw to connected banks or debit cards. While graduating from Y Combinator (Summer 2020) it reported processing about $500,000 per month in transaction fees and being used in more than 30 countries; after launching operations in Ghana, Kenya and Uganda it says it is now processing millions of dollars each month. On its website Afriex lists send/receive corridors including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Canada and the U.S. With the new investment the company plans to grow the team and expand into additional markets.

Led · Seed · Aug 2019

CodeStream provides an in-IDE platform for developers to discuss, review, and understand code, saving conversations alongside the codebase as contextual documentation. The product automatically builds a knowledge base linked to specific code blocks, helping teams pay down technical debt and retain institutional knowledge. Customers include Zenefits, Deloitte, and universities such as Carnegie Mellon. Users report code review time reductions of as much as 50% and improvements in code quality. CodeStream operates as a SaaS business with a free 30-day trial, free use for teams of five or fewer and for educational/open-source projects, and a $10 per user per month price for business customers of six or more, with higher-priced enterprise features. The company has raised a total of $8.8M to date and plans additional integrations and enterprise adoption in the near term. CodeStream offers a conversation layer on top of source code that lets developers select text, start threaded discussions, and @-mention teammates, opening the correct file and line in VS Code. The product integrates with Slack to create matching Slack threads and keeps conversation threads persistent so teams can review why changes were made even as code evolves. Today CodeStream supports VS Code with a split-pane UI showing threads alongside code; the company plans to add support for Visual Studio, JetBrains editors and Atom. CodeStream does not replace git commits or native code comments but complements them with a focused discussion layer. The company is still in beta and is free for now. It is Y Combinator–backed and recently completed a funding round.

Led · Series B · Feb 2019

StemoniX produces assay plates containing living human microOrgans®, including electrophysiologically active neural (microBrain®) and cardiac (microHeart®) cells, to enable high-throughput screening for drug discovery. Its products simplify screening workflows and the company also offers a SaaS branch that partners with organizations to screen compounds and create customized microOrgan models and assays. StemoniX raised $14.4M in a Series B financing led by Brightstone Venture Capital. Participants included initial investors Crescent Ridge Partners and SEED San Diego and new investors Alumni Ventures Group, Keshif Ventures, and Mayo Clinic. The company intends to use the funds to expand commercial operations at sites in Minnesota and California supporting its microBrain, microHeart, and Discovery as a Service offerings, and to drive development of new products and services leveraging its stem cell technologies. StemoniX is based in Maple Grove, Minnesota, and is led by co-founder and CEO Ping Yeh.