• Prenetics

  Participated · Series A · Mar 2016

  Prenetics operates at the intersection of health sciences and technology, with its flagship wellness brand IM8 offering consumer health and well-being products. Backed early by David Beckham, the company has quickly scaled: IM8 recorded US$100 million in annual recurring revenue within just 11 months. Prenetics has also adopted a bitcoin-centric treasury strategy, already holding 268.4 BTC valued at roughly US$30.9 million and purchasing one bitcoin per day. Management is targeting US$1 billion in both annual revenue and bitcoin holdings over the next five years. The firm’s recent fundraising strengthens its balance sheet to pursue global expansion of IM8 while accelerating BTC accumulation. Prenetics’ shares trade on Nasdaq under the ticker PRE, and the company is headquartered in Hong Kong.

• Booktrack

  Led · Series B · Jul 2015

  Booktrack is a New Zealand startup that creates synchronized soundtracks—music, ambient audio and sound effects—that automatically sync with a reader’s pace for e-books. The company offers a library of 15,000 titles and has 2.5 million users. Its Booktrack Classroom product is subscribed to by over 12,000 schools, and students using booktracks reportedly read 30% longer and score 17% higher on comprehension tests. Publishers can produce their own soundtracks or pay Booktrack around $1,000 per novel for soundtrack creation; about 50 publishing companies, including Harper Collins and Random House, use the platform. Booktrack launched its first two tracks on the App Store four years ago and is led by founder Paul Cameron. The company will use the new funding to expand its library and continue rolling out soundtrack personalization features. Booktrack is a San Francisco, CA–based platform that synchronizes soundtracks to eBooks to match the storyline as readers read. Led by CEO Paul Cameron, the company has developed Booktrack Studio to enable self-published writers to add soundtracks to their ebooks. The service creates a unique soundtrack paced to an individual’s reading speed and synchronized to the storyline. In five months since launch, over 300,000 users have created more than 3,600 Booktracks in 30 languages. The company raised US$3m and intends to use the funds to expand into the education sector and to go mobile. Booktrack produces e-books with integrated background music and sound effects that play alongside the text to enhance reader engagement. The company has published soundtracked editions from authors such as James Frey and Salman Rushdie and even released a soundtracked version of the Bible. It works with publishers, including Random House and HarperCollins, to integrate soundtracks into commercial titles. Booktrack distributes titles through its website and mobile apps and uses the ePub format to enable conversion for other platforms. Operational metrics cited by the company show about 27% of customers who download a free sample purchase the book, and roughly 40% of downloaded books are read cover-to-cover. With new funding, Booktrack plans to expand its catalogue, broaden distribution outlets, and roll out a self-serve platform for authors and publishers.

• Shopline

  Participated · Seed · Feb 2015

  Shopline offers an out-of-the-box package that gives online retailers their own website, payments system, logistics network, a management dashboard and marketing services tailored for social-media sellers. The service is responsively designed for mobile and supports local logistics features such as deliveries to 7‑11 stores in Taiwan. The company moved from a freemium model to a paid plan at $40 per month with no transaction fees. CEO and co-founder Raymond Yip says Shopline has helped create over 15,000 shops, with top sellers grossing $25,000–$35,000 per month. The startup is initially focused on Chinese-speaking markets (Hong Kong and Taiwan) and plans to expand across Southeast Asia with a market-by-market approach. Shopline has also been working on a unified marketplace for its merchants that it intends to launch publicly in the future.

• QLL

  Participated · Equity · Nov 2014

  QLL develops educational mobile apps and an educator-facing platform that delivers personalized learning sessions using user analytics. Since launching in 2007 the company has produced roughly 150 iOS and Android apps, with about 6.5 million downloads in Taiwan and over 300,000 monthly active users. Its product set includes Pocket Chinese Tutor for pronunciation correction and several bilingual storytelling apps for children aged two to six. QLL’s apps run across mobile devices and smart TVs and have been preloaded on hardware from partners including Sony, Huawei, Foxconn and Fuhu. The company monetizes via content licensing to businesses and educators, app sales and in-app purchases, and advertising (currently about 10 million ad impressions per month). QLL plans to roll out an online platform that lets educators create and exchange digital learning materials without coding, and will expand internationally beginning with a Singapore test market before moving into Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, Canada and the U.S.; it may work with Huawei for distribution in Indonesia.

No current team members are available.