Participated · Series B · Jan 2022

Career Karma operates a marketplace and navigation tool that helps aspiring students and working professionals find and enroll in job-training programs and bootcamps rather than building its own curriculum. Founded in 2018 by Ruben Harris, Artur Meyster and Timur Meyster, the company has built a large community of career-transitioners and a curated marketplace of training options. In recent months it has seeded partnerships with employers and is shifting toward offering its services as an employee benefit, matching employees and contractors to training programs in its marketplace. The company historically charged bootcamps a placement fee—typically about 10% of a placed student’s tuition, which can range from $10,000 to $50,000—but is rethinking pricing as it moves into enterprise. Career Karma says this enterprise channel will enable employer-paid tuition and serve as a zero-cost acquisition channel to scale placements and upskilling. The startup has said its longer-term vision is to evolve into a large staffing-like business and is hiring to build pricing and product for that phase. Career Karma runs a student-to-bootcamp matching marketplace and community, helping learners find and enroll in coding bootcamps rather than building its own curriculum. The company charges bootcamps a placement fee—typically about 10% of a placed student’s tuition, which the article says can range from $10,000 to $50,000. It has expanded beyond simple matching into wraparound services, including small peer mentorship groups called Squads to support students during programs and job searches. Leadership says the startup is shifting toward becoming a daily-use career platform and plans to broaden its remit to trade schools, colleges and universities to build a larger community. Career Karma reports it has placed more than 3,000 people into job-training programs and has been profitable for the past five months while growing revenue roughly 20% month over month. The article notes an estimated top-line revenue range for the year (between $3M and $15M) based on placements, attributed to the reporter’s math in the story. Career Karma operates a free app that matches users to coding bootcamps and peer groups via a quiz, pairing beginners with more experienced peers for mentoring and study support. The company monetizes by taking a portion of bootcamp tuition when users accept an offer; bootcamps typically charge between $10,000 and $40,000, with median figures cited in a study. Career Karma says it has about 18,000 users and more than 100 downloads per day. The service emphasizes peer groups to improve retention and outcomes for career switchers, particularly those entering tech from nontechnical backgrounds. The startup traces its roots to a 2016 podcast called 'Breaking into Startups,' formed as a company in 2018, and graduated from Y Combinator earlier this year. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company focuses on scaling access to bootcamp options and community-driven support.

Participated · Series A · Sep 2021

TomoCredit offers a credit card and lending products aimed at the more than 40 million credit‑invisible immigrants and international students with no U.S. credit history. The company uses a proprietary underwriting algorithm called Tomo Score to identify high‑potential borrowers without a traditional credit score. Its first product is a card that the article describes as requiring no credit check, no deposit, no APR, and no feeds. TomoCredit plans to use new funding to expand its credit product offerings into areas such as auto loans and mortgages. The company is led by founder and CEO Kristy Kim and is based in San Francisco, CA. The fundraising includes both equity and debt capital, strengthening its ability to scale underwriting and product expansion. TomoCredit issues a fee-free Mastercard that helps first-time borrowers build credit by underwriting applicants on cash flow rather than FICO scores, using open-banking data from Finicity. The product charges no fees, no APR and does no credit pull; the company monetizes via merchant fees. TomoCredit is powered by Finicity (acquired by Mastercard) and was founded in January 2019 by Kristy Kim and Dmitry Kashlev. The startup has pre-approved more than 300,000 customers, expects to issue 500,000 cards by year-end, and says it has grown 10x this year. It currently has about 30 employees (up from 10 at its last raise) and is focused on recruiting senior talent to scale. Planned product and feature moves include a premium Tomo Black card for high-performing customers in early 2022, weekly autopay, and higher credit limits to accelerate score improvement. TomoCredit is a San Francisco-based fintech that issues a fee-free credit card designed to help first-time borrowers and immigrants build credit using cash-flow and open-banking data rather than traditional FICO scores. The card is issued by Community Federal Savings Bank, uses a seven-day automatic payment schedule, carries no fees or APR, and has average credit limits around $3,000 (scaling to $10,000). Users can link investment accounts to increase limits. Tomo launched cards in late summer 2020, attracted over 300,000 signups with roughly half pre-approved, and today reports more than 10,000 active users while aggressively issuing cards. The company’s revenue model is based on merchant fees rather than consumer fees. Tomo plans to use new capital to triple its headcount from 15, hire full-stack and data engineers, advance product development, and issue cards to remaining pre-approved applicants by this summer.

Participated · Series A · Feb 2021

Promise provides a modern payments platform built for government agencies to simplify residents' repayment of government debt. The platform is mobile-first, supports all payment methods and multiple languages, and offers adjustable payment dates, interest-free payment plans, custom reminders, and non-traditional payment options. Promise also operates a 24/7 team to assist residents, aiming to increase payment velocity and revenue for governments while reducing friction for underserved communities. The company positions itself as a financial services technology provider focused on public-sector payments. Promise plans to use the new funding to continue development and expansion of the Promise platform. Promise builds a mobile app and service for counties to replace pretrial jailing of low‑risk people who cannot afford bail. The platform conducts comprehensive intake, creates individualized care plans, reminds participants about court dates and obligations, and connects them with job training, housing, counseling and referrals. It provides monitoring and support, including progress reports and optional GPS monitoring devices for compliance tracking. Promise is onboarding one county and is in talks with three more; the company charges some counties about $17 per person per day—compared with roughly $190 per day to incarcerate someone—and sometimes less. The company says its system is built to reduce recidivism by helping participants secure employment and avoid further involvement in the criminal justice system. Promise is led by co‑founder and CEO Phaedra Ellis‑Lamkins and is part of Y Combinator’s current batch; it recently raised over $3 million.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2020

Sugarbreak offers a proprietary, all-natural system of herbal formulations designed to help reduce sugar consumption and promote healthy blood sugar management. The brand launched in September 2020 and is structured as a Public Benefit Corporation focused on reducing sugar consumption. Sugarbreak introduced three initial products—Resist, Stabilize, and Reduce—sold direct-to-consumer on Sugarbreak.com and Amazon. Its formulations are backed by over 20 ingredient clinical studies and the company is supported by notable medical professionals. The company plans to use new funding to expand availability and accelerate product development, with additional offerings targeted for early 2021. Founders include CEO Scarlett Leung along with Adam Lowry, Kyle Heller, and Luke Raymond.

Participated · Series C · Aug 2016

LendUp is a San Francisco-based fintech that offers personal loans, gamified financial education and savings products for the emerging middle class. The company is splitting into two stand-alone businesses so each can grow with separate technology platforms and optimized capital structures. LendUp will continue to focus on personal loans, gamified education and savings, while its credit card business will be carved out as the newly created Mission Lane. Mission Lane will include the credit card business’s card portfolio, IP, technology platform and team and will be led by interim CEO Vijesh Iyer. The company named Anu Shultes as CEO of LendUp; Sasha Orloff will step down from day-to-day responsibilities but remain on LendUp’s board and serve as an advisor to Mission Lane. LendUp was co-founded by Sasha Orloff and Jake Rosenberg in 2012 after graduating Y Combinator’s winter 2012 class. Executive team members named include Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Jordan Olivier, Sunil Singh, Jotaka Eaddy and Pia Thompson. LendUp builds lending products aimed at the "emerging middle class," offering personal loans to customers that traditional financial institutions often avoid or charge high fees. The company says its mission is to help those customers get out of debt, save money and become more financially successful. LendUp is expanding its product roadmap into credit cards and other services as part of that mission. The startup recently received a strategic investment from PayPal and says the two companies share a vision around financial inclusion. To support growth the company has added and promoted several senior finance and compliance hires from banks and fintechs. Those additions include board advisor Carrie Dolan and promotions/hires such as Vijesh Iyer (COO), Mandeep Walia (chief compliance officer), Jordan Olivier (VP of Finance) and Karry Bryan (VP and controller). LendUp offers technology-enabled short-term loans and credit cards supported by embedded financial education and a focus on improving users' credit. Led by CEO and co-founder Sasha Orloff, the company originated more than 3.3 million loans and surpassed $1 billion in loan originations since its inception in 2012. Headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Richmond, VA, LendUp positions itself as a socially responsible alternative in the consumer credit market. The company has been backed by more than $325 million in equity and debt financing from a range of investors. LendUp plans to use new financing to fund future loan growth. Its product and growth metrics emphasize both scale of originations and a mission-driven approach to credit-building. LendUp builds consumer-finance products centered on the L Card, a credit card with no hidden fees, a flexible payback schedule, and a companion app that can halt charges and shows a financial health meter. The company says it is signing up thousands of accounts per month and reports revenue "growing consistently month on month." Founded in 2011, LendUp originally targeted the payday-loan market and retained customers by providing financial education before expanding into credit cards. Earlier this year it raised $100 million in debt to fund lending and previously closed a $50 million Series B. LendUp is building its entire tech stack in-house and plans to use new capital to scale the L Card and customer acquisition. Management emphasizes balancing the company’s mission of reducing predatory fees with financial solvency as it grows. LendUp offers the LendUp Ladder payday-loan alternative and the L Card credit product, designed to help underbanked consumers access credit and improve FICO scores. The platform uses machine learning and alternative data (public records, specialty bureaus, bank statements) to underwrite borrowers quickly and embeds financial education and incentives so on-time payers earn points and access cheaper credit. LendUp reported several hundred million dollars in loan volume last year and grew new customers by 36% in December; it is profitable on a per-loan basis but is reinvesting heavily into growth and engineering. The app includes features like instant card pause, purchase notifications, spending budgets, whitelists, parental controls and a visible 'credit health' bar to encourage responsible use. A study with TransUnion cited in the article shows LendUp users had a higher chance of increasing their credit scores than users of other online lenders or non-borrowers. The company had about 140 employees and planned to potentially double headcount by the end of 2016.