Participated · Equity · Apr 2019

Blueland produces cleaning-product tablets across a range of categories, including hand soaps, spray cleaners, laundry and dish soaps, to avoid shipping water and single-use plastics. Launched in 2019, the company holds 40 patents (and patents pending) and is a certified B Corporation and Climate Neutral Certified. It has shipped more than 10 million products and grown its customer base to more than 1 million members. The company grew more than 400% over the last year and recorded an 80% increase in customer lifetime value as it broadened its product lines. Blueland is tooling up to continue rapid growth and expand its tablet offerings. The team invested in in-house formulation and tablet technology after being unable to find contract manufacturers capable of producing their dry-format products. Blueland offers cleaners (bathroom, glass and multi-purpose) sold as concentrated tablets that customers add to reusable cleaning containers the company provides. The company prices refills at $2 and initial cleanup kits at $30, and says its refills are 300 times lighter and 200 times smaller than traditional packaging. Blueland projects its form factor could eliminate the need for 100 billion single-use plastic bottles in the U.S. and says shipping-related emissions are dramatically lower (about a 90% cut). Founder Sarah Paiji, a former venture investor, recruited Syed Naqzi (ex-Method R&D director) and John Moscari as co-founders and has filed patents for the proprietary formulation and process. A manufacturing partner has been secured in an adjacent consumables category, though the partner’s identity was not disclosed. The company plans to develop new products with similar packaging footprints across adjacent categories each quarter.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2019

RealBlocks provides an end-to-end, white-labeled SaaS platform for alternative investments—real estate, infrastructure, private equity, and debt—covering digital onboarding, subscriptions, capital calls, platform analytics, automated document generation and liquidity solutions. The company launched in 2019 and is based in New York. Its technology is used by RIAs, wealth managers and large alternative managers, including LaSalle Investment Management across its $77 billion business. RealBlocks currently services over $77 billion in assets under administration. This year the firm added an SPV offering and a Queue Protection product to address liquidity pressure for private funds. The company says the new capital will be used to scale the platform and advance its mission to make investing in private funds as easy as investing in public funds. RealBlocks operates a blockchain-enabled platform that digitizes shares of alternative investment products—real estate, infrastructure, private equity and debt—and makes them tradable to increase liquidity and access. Launched in 2019 and headquartered in New York, the company focuses on improving the investment experience for wealth managers, advisors, and investors and is used by prominent alternative investment managers. Its technology has been used to create a 40 Act tender offer fund that gives financial intermediaries access to an index fund previously limited to institutions, enabling downstream retail distribution at lower cost. The platform is integrated with RIAs operating through the Charles Schwab, Pershing, and Fidelity platforms and is used by firms including Avestar Capital. RealBlocks plans to scale its business development and engineering teams to meet accelerating customer demand. Financially, the company announced a $7 million Series A—bringing total capital raised to $10.7 million—and said the round was oversubscribed and led by new investor Crosslink Capital. RealBlocks is a blockchain-powered real estate investment platform that tokenizes shares of private equity funds, enabling sponsors to sell shares to domestic and international investors and accept digital and fiat currency. The platform includes a bulletin-board mechanism to enable peer-to-peer trading and provide liquidity for otherwise illiquid real estate investments. RealBlocks positions itself to accelerate capital formation for real estate sponsors by leveraging blockchain infrastructure for distribution and global access. It also aims to give investors access to institutional private equity real estate offerings. The company is led by Founder and CEO Perrin Quarshie. RealBlocks closed a $3.1M seed funding round in January 2019.

Participated · Series A · Dec 2018

Good Money, led by founder and CEO Gunnar Lovelace, is a conscious digital banking platform providing banking and financial services. It directs 50% of the platform’s profits to impact projects focused on social and economic inequality, environmental stewardship and renewable energy. The platform offers FDIC‑insured savings accounts that will generate a 2% yield, free ATMs nationally, no‑overdraft fees and low consumer loan rates. Good Money will launch a waitlist in January 2019 that will reward users with equity for securing their spot ahead of a full platform release later in the year. The company is based in Los Angeles, CA. In October 2018 Good Money raised $30m in Series A financing.

Participated · Seed · Nov 2018

Phiar develops an ultra-lightweight Spatial-AI Engine and Mobility AR Engine to deliver camera-based augmented-reality navigation, vision-based live road detections, HD mapping, smart parking, and traffic-condition awareness for vehicles. The company integrates its software with modern automotive chipsets including Qualcomm Snapdragon and works closely with OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers such as Nissan, Panasonic Automotive, and Bosch, as well as mapping vendors TomTom and HERE. Phiar announced a recently closed Series A to accelerate business with OEMs and Tier-1 partners and to expand go-to-market resources. Founder Chen-Ping Yu will shift to Chairman of the Board and CTO to focus on spatial-AI technology and product development while new CEO Gene Karshenboym onboards to lead global growth. The company has announced partnerships with Panasonic Automotive to integrate its AI-based navigation into automotive solutions. Phiar is headquartered in Redwood City, California and was founded in 2017. Phiar develops an AR navigation app that overlays turn-by-turn directions while using object recognition and visual mapping to build high-quality map data. The company focused on software after initially considering building hardware prior to joining Y Combinator. Its app captures up to 30 minutes of dash-cam footage per ride, providing free dash-cam utility to users and anonymized metadata for mapping. Phiar has engineered single-camera, high-speed geometry understanding and real-time occlusion so digital overlays interact cleanly with the physical world at driving speeds. The startup plans to release its free consumer app in mid-2019 and is positioning its mapping data for partners in autonomous vehicles and ridesharing. CEO Chen-Ping Yu says Phiar is in talks with automotive and ridesharing partners to integrate its technology.

Participated · Series B · Nov 2018

Airspace is a time-critical logistics tech company that operates a global delivery network aimed at accelerating and improving time-sensitive shipments. Led by co-founder and CEO Nick Bulcao, the company provides real-time, data-driven notifications and tracks over 16,000 touchpoints within a shipment. It serves numerous Fortune 500 customers across healthcare, aerospace, semiconductor, and automotive manufacturing. Airspace has offices in Carlsbad, Dallas, Amsterdam, and Stockholm and employs more than 300 people. The company plans to use new funding to accelerate market penetration in Europe, expand into Asia, build out its core business, launch expedited freight service lines, and enter new verticals including semiconductor, automotive, and cleantech. To date, Airspace has raised $138M in total funding. Airspace operates a global delivery network focused on time-critical and scheduled logistics, leveraging software, people, and a courier network to move urgent shipments such as organs, lab tests, PPE, and vaccines. The company uses a patented Logistical Management System that applies machine learning and AI to generate optimal shipping routes in seconds versus the industry standard of roughly 30 minutes. Airspace serves over 200 enterprise customers across healthcare, high-tech, manufacturing, and aerospace, including Labcorp, Quest Diagnostics, Frontier Airlines, and the American Red Cross. The business reports 200 employees, has shipped more than 200,000 packages to date, and estimates its deliveries have positively affected over 180,000 lives. It assisted pandemic relief by moving thousands of COVID tests daily and acted as a primary logistics provider for vaccine distribution in California. Airspace opened an office in Amsterdam and plans to open additional offices in Europe and Asia as it continues international expansion. The company says it is on pace to grow by over 100% in 2021 and has raised funding that supports continued technology and geographic growth. Airspace Technologies provides a tech platform for time-definite delivery and supply chain services, offering automated quoting, routing and real-time notifications for priority shipments. The company operates a global contractor network that connects businesses directly with drivers (called "commanders") to speed deliveries, increase transparency and reduce cost. Its proprietary algorithms and datasets are used by over 100 companies, including LabCorp, FedEx and Frontier Airlines. Founded in 2015 and led by CEO Nick Bulcao, the company is based in Carlsbad, Calif. Airspace intends to use the new funding to expand globally and accelerate its delivery network and enterprise software platform. The business focuses on time-critical logistics and enterprise customers. Airspace Technologies offers time-definite delivery and supply chain services through an integrated platform and a nationwide network of vetted 1099 driver-partners. Its platform uses proprietary routing algorithms to automate planning for the fastest possible deliveries and enables real-time communication with customers for critical shipments. Driver-partners opt into the platform via the Mobile Application CommanderConnect™ and support high-value loads such as aircraft parts and human organs for transplant. Since its inception in 2015, the company has focused on healthcare, high-tech/semiconductor, and aerospace markets and has customers including LabCorp, FedEx, and Frontier Airlines. The company has built a nationwide network of 1099 driver-partners and currently employs over 50 people. It plans to use the new funding to hire more than 40 additional employees and further develop its delivery network and software platform.