The Venture Codex

Participated · Seed · Nov 2023

Rho Impact builds data, models and expert services that contextualize the environmental impact of climate technologies and help investors and companies meet sustainability goals and navigate evolving ESG requirements. The company develops verifiable and auditable impact forecasting tools and platforms, including Gemini, and partners with Prime Coalition to produce CRANE. CRANE is a free tool used by over 4,000 investors and companies to estimate the emissions-reduction potential of new technologies. Led by CEO Gilman Callsen, Rho Impact provides both software and expert services to support impact-informed investment decisions. The company says it is used globally and focuses on directing investment into promising climate solutions. Rho Impact intends to use recent funds to sharpen its focus on building verifiable and auditable impact forecasting capabilities.

Participated · Seed · Aug 2021

TOP the organic project is a women-owned period-product company that makes 100% certified organic-cotton tampons and pads, marketed as hypoallergenic and free from synthetics, toxins, pesticides, dyes and fragrances. Its tampons use a trademarked Planticator®, a plant-based applicator designed to replace traditional plastic applicators. The brand operates a give-back model to address period poverty, having donated nearly 750,000 period products, and supports food banks and school districts through philanthropic partnerships. Since founding in 2018, TOP has expanded into about 1,500 retailers nationwide, including Sprouts, HEB, Wegmans and Target.com, and has reported triple-digit year-over-year growth. With the newly announced $2 million seed extension (part of $3 million raised since founding), the company plans to expand retail presence and product offerings, bolster marketing, and grow its team. TOP has also launched partnerships with Imperfect Foods and rolled out a First Period Gift Box for teens and parents to drive education and accessibility.

Participated · Equity · Dec 2020

Dive Technologies designs and manufactures autonomous underwater vehicles, including the commercial DIVE-LD AUV and a customizable commercial AUV Kit. The DIVE-LD is a 4' diameter, 19' long vehicle rated for up to ten days of mission endurance and depths to 6,000 meters. The AUV Kit lets customers customize vehicles using Dive’s manufacturing processes. The company is pursuing a Robot-as-a-Service business model and sees demand from commercial offshore wind, oil and gas, deep-sea exploration, and government customers. Proceeds from the recent financing will be used to realize 2021 sales opportunities and to accelerate geographic expansion and new partnerships. Total funding to date is $9.5 million.

Participated · Series A · Apr 2019

ChurnZero provides a Customer Success platform that helps subscription businesses fight churn by showing how customers use products, assessing customer health and renewal likelihood, and enabling personalized touchpoints. The software integrates customer account data from multiple sources to help Customer Success teams proactively manage relationships and identify renewal or upsell opportunities. Led by co-founder and CEO You Mon Tsang, the company focuses on enabling teams to be proactive rather than reactive. The company announced a $25M Series B and has $35M in total funding to date. ChurnZero intends to use the new capital to invest in the Customer Success ecosystem, expand the team, grow go-to-market programs, and deepen product development. ChurnZero provides a real-time customer success platform that helps subscription businesses fight churn, expand current accounts, increase product adoption and optimize the overall customer experience. Its software lets businesses understand how customers use their product, assess customer health and likelihood to renew, and personalize the customer experience through relevant touchpoints. The company was founded in 2015 by CEO You Mon Tsang and is based in Arlington, VA. In April 2019 ChurnZero raised a $7M Series A, bringing total funding to date to $10M. The company plans to use the funds to grow the customer success ecosystem and to accelerate and deepen product development on the platform. No operating metrics were disclosed in the article. ChurnZero offers a real-time Customer Success platform that helps subscription businesses understand how customers use their product, assess customer health and renewal likelihood, and automate personalized touchpoints including in-app content. The platform is designed to give Customer Success teams the means to automate and personalize the customer experience and act as a hub for retention efforts. Customers include fast-growing subscription companies such as Terminus, which says ChurnZero improved engagement and made retention more predictable. ChurnZero is led by co-founder and CEO You Mon Tsang and is headquartered in Arlington, VA. To support growth in the emerging Customer Success sector, the company completed a $2.5M financing round led by Grotech Ventures. Management and investors describe the market as nascent but growing and expect the capital and board support to help scale the business.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2018

ARtGlass develops augmented reality experiences delivered on smartglasses for museums, archaeological sites and other cultural heritage locations. The company is co-founded by Greg and Marion Werkheiser and CTO Luigi Percuoco. It plans to use new funding to bolster its proprietary software platform, enhance intellectual property and scale deployments to additional iconic historic and cultural sites across North America. ARtGlass has already served more than 750,000 visitors at iconic museums and archaeological sites in Europe. The company is based in Richmond, Virginia and targets the cultural heritage sector globally through partnerships and on-site deployments.