Participated · Series C · Oct 2022

Railsr (formerly Railsbank) offers embedded banking APIs that enable customers to integrate credit, credit cards, loyalty and classic banking services into their products. The company targets retailers, venues, sporting/events businesses and other fintechs, and cites customers including Wagestream, Aviva, McLaren (via QtmPay), HelloCash, Sodexo and Payine. Railsr partners with AWS, Salesforce, Visa, MasterCard and Plaid for integrations. Revenues grew 50% in the first half of the year and customer count rose to 300 from 220 a year earlier, but the company is not yet profitable. Earlier this year Railsr reduced headcount by about 14% (roughly 70 people) and downsized operations in Southeast Asia and Australia to focus on the U.K. and Europe. The company recently appointed Rick Haythornthwaite as chairman and says the new capital is a step on its route to profitability.

Participated · Seed · Aug 2022

Cashmere builds and operates an enterprise wallet platform designed specifically for the Solana ecosystem, giving companies a secure, self-custody alternative to cold storage. Its product enables multisignature transaction approval, ensuring that multiple authorized wallets must sign before any assets can be moved, thereby eliminating a single point of failure. The service targets crypto hedge funds, NFT projects, gaming companies and well-known Web3 startups; the team notes that marketplace giant OpenSea signed up organically soon after launch. Cashmere positions itself as an ‘institutional-grade’ solution that remains practical for day-to-day treasury operations, contrasting with less convenient cold-storage hardware. Wallet security on Solana has become a heightened concern after recent hacks, which Cashmere cites as validation of its approach. The company intends to use its newly raised capital to expand its engineering team and roll out a premium product for larger institutions later this year. Founded roughly six months ago, it has already attracted a roster of high-profile crypto investors and customers, though revenue and user counts were not disclosed.

Participated · Series E · Jan 2022

Bolt provides a one-click checkout product that bundles payments and fraud protection and lets shoppers create a single account to use across a network of hundreds of Bolt merchant brands. The company also integrates embedded commerce technology following its acquisition of Tipser to enable direct checkout on any digital surface. Bolt is investing the new capital to hire talent, pursue strategic acquisitions and expand into Europe, while rolling out new consumer and social-commerce products to place its checkout across channels. Operational momentum cited in the article includes an 80% increase in gross merchandise value per merchant, 180% growth in accounts over 2020 and 200% year‑over‑year transaction growth; Bolt projects 100 million shoppers could join its network in the next 18 months. The company employs more than 550 people working remotely across over 200 cities and is focused on unbundling the Amazon buying experience (fast shipping, returns, tracking, membership benefits) for merchants. Bolt provides a federated One-Click checkout experience platform that connects registered shoppers to a cross-brand network of retailers, enabling fast, safe, and easy checkout on any device. The company addresses checkout complexity, fraud detection, and digital wallets, and claims conversion rates 50% higher than guest checkout. Bolt also states it can cover 100% of fraudulent chargebacks, underscoring confidence in its fraud-detection technology. Bolt partners with hundreds of retailers, has thousands more coming online, and has crossed 10 million registered shoppers. The company was named to the 2021 Forbes Fintech 50 list and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Bolt has stated plans to bring one-third of all U.S. shoppers onto its platform by 2022 and has raised over $600 million in total funding to date. Bolt’s core product is a checkout platform it says is faster than industry averages and drives higher conversion; it also offers integrated payments, fraud protection and shopper accounts to power personalization and trust. The company is a hybrid payments-and-software business, generating revenue from payment processing and SaaS fees for services like fraud protection. Bolt reported processing around $1 billion in transactions this year (roughly 3.5x 2019 GMV) and said it has grown shopper accounts from about 450,000 in December to roughly 4.5 million now, targeting 30 million next year. Management projects roughly 3x GMV in 2021 (about $3 billion) and attributes part of its growth to an agreement with Authentic Brands Group. Bolt plans to use new capital to handle market demand, move upmarket and expand engineering and sales support for larger customers. The product and account growth are intended to feed more data into its anti-fraud and checkout personalization tools. Bolt is a San Francisco-based checkout experience platform that provides a frontend checkout and a full stack of features and integrations that checkout touches. It integrates with ecommerce tools, shopping carts, and payments processors including BigCommerce, Magento, WooCommerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, PayPal, Apple Pay, AfterPay, Stripe, and Braintree. Customers include BadgleyMischka.com, Cariloha, Dita, Hyperice, PuppySpot and POLYWOOD. The company is led by CEO and co-founder Ryan Breslow. Bolt raised $50m in a Series C and intends to use the funds to expand operations and its business reach. The financing brought the company’s total funding to nearly $140m. Bolt provides an integrated checkout platform that combines payment processing and fraud detection to streamline the buying experience for online retailers. Its dynamic checkout optimizations and conversion-focused fraud tools helped customers realize more than $25 million in new revenue. The platform has processed an annualized payment volume of over $1 billion and handled more than 1.5 million transactions. Bolt has grown from ten people working out of a loft in San Francisco to more than 125 employees across three offices. The company sells an all-in-one alternative to piecing together multiple solutions for checkout and payments. Bolt plans to use new funding to scale engineering, add enterprise functionality for large retailers, partner with additional eCommerce tools, build advanced shopping-experience features, and expand global capabilities.

Participated · Series B · Oct 2021

Mulberry delivers a customer warranty experience embedded into online retailers’ websites and via a Google Chrome browser extension that offers shoppers 12 months of free accident protection and competitive longer-term plans. Its brand partnership solution lets retailers embed protection offers into the customer journey to generate incremental revenue and deepen customer relationships. Both offerings rely on Mulberry’s proprietary machine-learning technology that maps products to relevant protection plans in real time, enabling faster integrations and a seamless shopper experience. The company’s retail partners include Hayneedle, FormeLife, Houzz, Neato Robotics, and TriMark. Led by CEO Chinedu Eleanya, Mulberry is using product and ML capabilities as the core of its go-to-market with ecommerce integrations. The company closed a $22M Series B to support its growth plans. Mulberry provides warranty and extended-service programs for direct-to-consumer brands, integrated at point of sale for online retailers. Founded by Chinedu Eleanya, the company targets small and medium-sized retailers to help retain customers and increase lifetime value. Mulberry counts customers such as Mirror, Breville and Nectar Sleep. The shift to online shopping and the COVID-19 pandemic have increased demand for its services. The company reported about $1 million in ARR and was on pace to hit $10 million ARR in 2020. Mulberry positions itself as a democratized warranty solution to help DTC brands compete amid rising customer-acquisition costs.

Participated · Equity · Sep 2021

Jetty is a New York City–based financial services company that provides renter-focused products and services. Its core product suite includes Jetty Deposit (a security deposit alternative), Jetty Rent (a flexible rent payment program), and Jetty Protect (modern renters insurance). The company serves a network of property owners and operators that own and manage millions of rental units across the country. Jetty received an undisclosed investment from PayPal Ventures and Experian Ventures and will use the funding to accelerate growth and expand products. The firm plans to launch Jetty Credit, a credit-building service designed to report rent payments to credit bureaus to help renters boost their credit scores. Jetty says the new credit product will interact with its existing platform products to provide an all-in-one solution for renters and property managers; the company is led by co-founder and CEO Mike Rudoy. Jetty is a financial services platform led by CEO Mike Rudoy focused on reducing the financial burden of moving and adding flexibility for renters. Its integrated suite of products helps property managers increase lease conversions, improve resident retention, reduce bad debt, and boost net operating income. The company serves both property managers and renters with tools that change how and when rent can be paid. Jetty raised an equity investment (amount undisclosed) to support its growth. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate growth and expand its portfolio and investments. Jetty is based in New York. Jetty, founded in 2016, is a New York City-based fintech and insurtech offering renters insurance, a security-deposit alternative, and a rent-flexibility product called Jetty Rent. Jetty Rent pays landlords in full on the first of the month and gives renters until the 24th to repay, either in a lump sum or via installments, charging no interest or late fees but a monthly subscription fee of $15–$25 depending on risk profile. The product launched in beta through a partnership with Cortland and is now being rolled out to the public. Jetty provides the loans for the product through Cross River Bank and says it is evolving from an insurtech into also a lender. The company reports agreements with property owners and managers that operate more than 2.2 million rental units and 193% average year-over-year growth in contracted units since 2017. Jetty employs about 100 people and has raised $78 million to date. Jetty is an NYC-based fintech startup that provides renters with financial access to rental homes across the U.S. Founded by Mike Rudoy and Luke Cohler, the company offers three products that can be used alone or together: Deposit (a security deposit replacement), Renters Insurance, and Lease Guaranty (an institutional guarantor). Its property management partners include LivCor, Beam Living, Griffis, LeFrak, Lynd, and Rose Associates, among others, collectively spanning more than 500,000 rental units nationwide. Jetty raised $25M in a Series B round that brought total funding to more than $40M. The company said it will use the funds to continue investing in technology and personnel and to expand its real estate distribution presence. Jetty offers a suite of rental-focused finance and insurance products designed to solve problems for consumers and landlords during the home rental process. Its core offerings include Jetty Passport Deposit, Jetty Passport Lease, and Jetty Renters Insurance, which help consumers avoid expensive security deposits, obtain lease guarantors, and secure renters insurance. The company also sells coverage for personal items such as collections, accessories, and electronics, and for risks like bed bugs or theft during home-sharing. Jetty currently offers all three products in 131 states; its Passport products are available in 25 states and Renters Insurance and Passport Deposit are available in California. The company is working to make all three products available nationwide by the end of the year. Jetty is led by co-founders and executives Luke Cohler (President) and Mike Rudoy (CEO).