Participated · Series A · May 2025

SparkCharge, founded in 2018 by CEO Joshua Aviv, offers charging-as-a-service that lets fleets buy electricity per kilowatt-hour while SparkCharge delivers and operates charging (including off-grid mobile chargers). The company pivoted from consumer-focused mobile EV charging and previously partnered with AllState to assist stranded EV drivers. Its service includes drop-off equipment or “white glove” full-service charging and can transition customers to permanent depot infrastructure as operations grow. SparkCharge has expanded its operations across all 50 U.S. states, Canada, and Mexico, and says 95% of customers use its off-grid chargers. The startup deploys battery- or generator-powered mobile chargers that can run on propane, natural gas, or hydrogen, and targets high-volume fleet sites such as ports, railheads, and manufacturers. Typical pricing cited is roughly $0.35–$0.60 per kilowatt-hour, and the company emphasizes avoiding grid interconnection delays and construction costs for customers. SparkCharge operates an on-demand EV charging delivery service that uses stackable Roadie portable EV batteries to provide Level 3 DC fast charging. Each Roadie battery provides 3.5 Kwh usable energy, stackable batteries can deliver up to 72 miles of range, and the system is compatible with Tesla, CSS, and CHAdeMo. Customers request charges via the Currently app to have their vehicles charged wherever and whenever they want. The service launched in four cities (Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, and Dallas) and is now expanding into 12 additional California cities, including Huntington Beach, Irvine, Oakland, and others. SparkCharge reports it has already provided over 250,000 miles of range and says it is on track to provide millions this year. The company plans to scale into larger and underserved markets using new funding to expand its Currently app footprint. SparkCharge is a Somerville, Mass.-based mobile electric vehicle charging network led by CEO and founder Josh Aviv. The company makes the Roadie Charging System, a portable, modular solution that enables DC fast charging anywhere regardless of infrastructure, and operates the Currently app for on-demand EV power delivery. Currently has been launched in four cities and has delivered over 100,000 miles of range to EV owners; the app is on track to deliver millions of miles this year and to prevent over 85 tons of CO2 pollution. Since early 2022 the company has secured partnerships and programs with global brands including Kia Motors, Hertz, and Uber that leverage its mobile charging technology. SparkCharge plans to deploy more solutions through the Currently app and to expand into over 20 additional markets. The company intends to use the new funds to expand market presence and develop new mobile charging products. SparkCharge has developed the Roadie, a 120 kW portable fast charger that can be delivered on demand through a network of partners. The Roadie lets customers request between roughly 50 and 100 miles of charge via an app, with on‑demand charges costing about $0.50 per mile and minimum top‑ups around $10. SparkCharge distributes the units through partners (for example Spiffy) and has a partnership with AllState, which has ordered roughly 20 portable chargers and will deploy the service in four cities. The company envisions independent workers running on‑demand charging as a gig‑economy business and offers equipment access for about $450 per month to enable that model. SparkCharge is based in Somerville, Massachusetts, and founder Joshua Aviv began working on the business while a student at Syracuse University. The company is bringing the Roadie to market alongside a platform for distribution and a network of service providers.

Led · Equity · Jun 2024

Hero Bread produces an artisanal line of low-carb, high-nutrition baked goods using resistant wheat starch to achieve minimal to zero net carbs. Its portfolio includes croissants, cheese biscuits, rolls, buns, tortillas and seeded and white breads sold DTC and across over 4,000 retailers. The company says sales have more than doubled every year since launch and expects to easily double sales year over year. Founder Cole Glass launched the business in 2021 and early backers included athletes Tom Brady and Kevin Durant and recording artists including The Weeknd. Hero Bread has invested in product formulation and manufacturing capacity, iterating recipes (for example replacing seed oils with olive oil) and building a test kitchen and manufacturing system to support rapid growth. The company plans to expand national distribution, broaden retail doors in 2024, continue product innovation and explore other carbohydrate-rich categories. Hero Bread produces low‑carbohydrate breads that replace standard flour with proteins and plant fibers, delivering roughly 0–2 grams of carbs per serving versus more than 20 grams in traditional white bread and offering higher protein. The company’s products are positioned as direct substitutes for conventional bread with a nutrition-forward formulation. Online sales through the company website are expanding, and the firm plans a retail rollout into 32 U.S. states, including placement at Sprouts Farmers Market. Athlete sponsors Tom Brady and Kevin Durant are among the company’s backers. The business just completed new fundraising to support growth through the end of 2023, and leadership has signaled the remainder of the raise could close earlier if performance exceeds expectations.

Led · Series B · Jun 2024

The Desire Company operates a content media platform that shares products, content reviews, operation methods, and courses to assist shoppers in making purchase decisions. Its content mix includes product recommendations, reviews, and instructional courses aimed at informed buying. On June 6, 2024, DoNews reported that the company secured $97 million in a Series B financing. Reported investors in the round were Valor Siren Ventures and Cleveland Avenue. The article does not provide details on valuation, use of proceeds, prior funding rounds, or operating metrics. The Desire Company is a content media platform that publishes authentic video reviews, how-to’s, and classes featuring elite industry professionals. Its creators include NFL athletes, celebrity fitness trainers, licensed wellness experts, make-up artists, stylists, and dancers. The platform hosts over 4,000 videos aimed at empowering shoppers to make more educated, confident purchase decisions. The company is co-founded by husband-and-wife duo Eric and Judith Sheinkop and is based in Atlanta, GA. It raised $8M in Series A funding to expand operations. The funds will support brand and retailer partnerships and the opening of a new studio in Chicago to increase production capabilities. DesireList is an Atlanta-based media company that operates a platform connecting consumers with real professionals who share personal stories and authentic product reviews. Led by co-founder and CEO Eric Sheinkop, the platform showcases video content featuring NFL athletes, top models, celebrity fitness trainers, wellness experts, make-up artists, stylists and dancers. Professionals on the site share their paths to becoming pros and provide exclusive access to the products they use and recommend. The DesireList platform enables consumers to discover and shop the products those professionals endorse. Financially, the company secured seed funding to support its operations and growth initiatives.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2024

NeuReality develops purpose‑built AI inference system architecture, hardware and software under its NR1 AI Inference Solution, including the NR1 NAPU™ 7nm server‑on‑a‑chip. Its NR1‑M™ and NR1‑S™ PCIe cards integrate into server racks and route AI tasks independently of CPUs to improve utilization and energy efficiency. The company says its systems drive 100% AI accelerator utilization and connect directly to Ethernet to manage large AI query pipelines. NeuReality has delivered NAPUs from TSMC and demonstrated compatible server configurations with partners including AMD, IBM, Lenovo, Qualcomm and Supermicro. It is running early deployments with select cloud and enterprise customers across financial services, business services and government and aims to accelerate broader deployment into additional markets and generative AI use cases. The company’s additional capital will be used to shift from early deployment to growth and expand customer adoption. NeuReality develops the Network Attached Processing Unit (NAPU) family — including the FPGA‑based NR1, the NR1‑M PCIe module and the multi‑module NR1‑S — combined with a software stack (SDK, deployment manager, monitoring) to simplify AI inference deployment. The company targets cloud data centers, on‑premises edge systems and enterprises running computer vision, NLP and recommendation workloads. NeuReality says its hardware and software optimize data movement, scheduling and virtualization to improve inference efficiency, though it has not published independent benchmarking to validate some performance claims. The startup has partnered with Xilinx for production and with IBM as a design partner; it has been shipping prototypes since May 2021. NeuReality was co‑founded in 2019 and currently has about 40 employees, with plans to hire 20 more over the next two fiscal quarters. To date the company has raised $48 million in venture capital and will use its latest funding to finalize chip design and begin customer shipments. NeuReality is developing a novel AI inferencing platform that removes the CPU-centric bottleneck to allow hyperscale clouds and data centers to offload ML models. The team applies techniques from networking and storage to create a bottom-up architecture it describes as the next evolution of AI computer engines. The company claims its system can deliver about 15x performance per dollar for basic deep learning offloading and larger gains when the entire pipeline is offloaded. NeuReality has working prototypes implemented on a Xilinx FPGA and plans to offer fully custom hardware early next year. Target customers include hyperscale cloud providers, data center owners, software solutions providers such as WWT, and OEMs/ODMs. The founding team includes CEO Moshe Tanach, VP of operations Tzvika Shmueli and VP for very large-scale integration Yossi Kasus, and Naveen Rao (former Nervana CEO and Intel AI Products Group GM) is joining the board.

Participated · Series C · Jan 2024

Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) develops vertical farming technology and indoor farming systems. The company is pursuing significant global expansion and is partnering with Dubai-based ReFarm to build a 900,000 square foot GigaFarm in the United Arab Emirates. The planned waste-to-value farm is designed to recycle more than 50,000 tonnes of food waste and grow two billion plants each year. IGS intends to deploy its vertical farming technology to customers worldwide as it scales. To support this expansion the company completed a £22.5 million Series C. Leadership changes accompanied the raise, with Andrew Lloyd named CEO and Sonya Hotson appointed full-time CFO and joining the board. Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) develops patented plug-and-play vertical-farming technology and designs and builds controlled-environment farms for food, pharmaceutical and fragrance customers. The company has deployed its technology to customers across four continents and launched its first crop research centre in August 2018. IGS says its sales pipeline has quadrupled in the past 12 months. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Glasgow, the business emphasizes efficiency and simplicity in indoor growing. The company positions its technology to address food security and environmental challenges and aims to scale controlled-environment agriculture through further commercial deployments. Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) is a Scottish indoor AgriTech and Commercial Lighting business that has developed and productised a patented IoT-enabled power and communications platform, including electrical, electronic and mechanical technologies and a ventilation system. The platform is managed by a SaaS and data platform using AI to deliver economic and operational benefits to indoor environments. Led by CEO David Farquhar, IGS has prepared its technologies for commercial deployments. IGS completed the second and final close of its Series A with £1.6M, bringing the total Series A to £7M. The £1.6M comprised £1.5M from Ospraie Ag Science and an additional £100K from AgFunder; existing Series A investors include S2G Ventures and the Scottish Investment Bank. The funding is intended to expand IGS's market presence through global sales operations for both AgriTech and Commercial Lighting. Demand for its systems is reported as high, with first deployments expected in early 2020. Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) supplies plug-and-play vertical farming technology to indoor farms to enable efficient food production in any location. Led by CEO David Farquhar, the company opened its first vertical farming demonstration facility in August 2018. IGS has seen global interest and mounting orders for its patented technologies. The company raised £5.4m in a Series A funding round to support growth. Proceeds will be used to create jobs in software development, engineering, robotics and automation and to increase product development. IGS plans continued innovation in AI, big data and the Internet of Things. The company also intends to expand global marketing, sales and customer support teams across three continents.