Participated · Seed · Oct 2024

Founded in 2020, HEN Technologies has engineered fire-suppression nozzles that boost suppression rates up to 300 % while cutting water use by 67 %. The firm has expanded its line to monitors, valves, overhead sprinklers, pressure devices and the forthcoming Stream IQ flow-control and discharge-control systems, all containing custom circuit boards and, in some cases, Nvidia Orion Nano processors. These devices stream real-time data—such as flow, pressure, GPS location and weather—into HEN’s cloud platform, giving incident commanders granular insight into water usage and operational conditions. The company has filed 20 patent applications (with six granted) and employs about 50 people drawn from Adobe, NASA, Tesla, Apple and Microsoft. Commercial traction includes 1,500 fire-department customers, sales to the Marine Corps, US Army bases, NASA and Abu Dhabi Civil Defense, distribution through 120 resellers and shipments to 22 countries. After launching products in Q2 2023, HEN generated $200 k that year, grew to $1.6 m in 2024 and $5.2 m last year, and is projecting $20 m in revenue this year. The rapidly expanding installed base is building a unique data lake that the company plans to monetize via predictive-analytics applications beginning next year.

Participated · Series A · Sep 2023

Ambient Photonics builds low-light solar energy harvesting technology designed to replace disposable batteries in connected devices such as remote controls, keyboards, mice, electronic shelf labels, and sensors. Its low-light solar cells deliver high power density at mass-market price points and are integrated with global electronics manufacturers. The company was founded in 2019 and is based in Scotts Valley, California, where it recently opened a flagship manufacturing facility. Ambient plans to use new funding to expand manufacturing capabilities and drive mass-market adoption of its technology. Its technology originated at the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry and initial funding was provided by Cthulhu Ventures LLC. Ambient positions its solution as a way to reduce e-waste and eliminate battery replacements across consumer, retail, and industrial IoT applications. Ambient Photonics, founded in 2019 in California, develops low-light solar PV cells that harvest energy across the full light spectrum for connected devices. Its technology reportedly generates more than three times the power of conventional solutions from ambient light and can reduce the carbon footprint of battery-powered devices by up to 80 percent. The company positions its cells as an alternative to disposable and rechargeable batteries, aiming to eliminate associated landfill waste. Ambient works with global smart home and IoT device manufacturers to embed its cells for improved design possibilities, performance, and sustainability. The company is planning to open what it describes as the world’s largest low-light solar cell production facility in the U.S. to scale low-cost, high-power cells to the mass IoT market. Recent financing activity — equity and equipment debt — is being used to support that U.S. manufacturing buildout. Ambient Photonics develops low-light energy-harvesting photovoltaic (PV) cells that generate as much as three times more power than conventional technology by harvesting across the entire light spectrum, including artificial and natural light. The company works with global smart-home and IoT manufacturers, including Universal Electronics Inc., to embed its cells and reduce or eliminate disposable batteries, cutting landfill waste and device carbon footprints by up to 80%. Ambient plans to build the world’s largest U.S.-based low-light solar cell production facility in Mill Valley, California, featuring a fully automated production line with capacity for tens of millions of units per year to enable mass-market adoption. The company was founded in 2019 and its technology was originally developed at the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry; initial funding since inception came from Cthulhu Ventures LLC. Ambient is pursuing a Part II application for a $162 million DOE Title XVII loan guarantee to support scaling; the facilities are projected to generate hundreds of local U.S. jobs and reduce Scope 3 emissions. Its technology targets batteryless or lower-battery-mass IoT devices, enabling new product form factors with operational and sustainability benefits.

Participated · Series A · Feb 2020

MycoWorks develops mycelium materials via its patented Fine Mycelium technology, a manufacturing platform that engineers mycelium during growth to form proprietary, interlocking cellular structures for increased strength and durability. The company intends to use new funds to advance R&D efforts and build more sustainable alternatives for designers. Founded by Philip Ross and Sophia Wang and led by CEO Matt Scullin, MycoWorks focuses on bringing new mycelium materials to market. The firm is based in San Francisco and was founded in 2013. The article does not disclose revenue, users, or other operating metrics. The most recent investment amount and instrument were not disclosed in the article. MycoWorks develops Reishi, a fungal-based biomaterial intended to replace traditional leather, produced via its proprietary Fine Mycelium biotechnology platform. The company was founded in 2013 by Philip Ross and Sophia Wang and is led by CEO Matt Scullin. MycoWorks has established partnerships with major luxury brands, including an initial collaboration with Hermès, and reports contracts with a range of global luxury houses. The company validated its tray-based manufacturing process at a pilot plant in Emeryville, California, processing 10,000 trays and demonstrating scalability. With the new funding it plans to build a production plant in Union, S.C., target mass-scale production (initially several million square feet per year), and expand team, R&D and technology development. Management positions the product both for high-end luxury use and eventual broader price-point availability as it scales manufacturing. MycoWorks develops Reishi™, a natural, non-animal leather material designed for the fashion and luxury industries. The company positions Reishi™ to perform like cowhide while offering a sustainable alternative for fashion and footwear. It intends to use new funds to scale production and meet growing demand. MycoWorks has opened a major Reishi™ production plant in Emeryville, California that introduces proprietary systems to boost productivity and increases capacity by over 10x. Additional plants are being designed and sited to support further scaling. The company plans to roll out consumer products in the coming months as it announces partnerships with leading global luxury fashion and footwear brands, and celebrity investors participated in the round. MycoWorks develops Reishi, a fine mycelium leather produced via its proprietary Fine Mycelium™ technology that emulates the collagen structure of animal leathers. The company says Reishi provides the same performance, quality and aesthetics as leather without the use of animals or plastic. Reishi is already used by multiple European luxury and footwear brands, and products have been prototyped and tested with major luxury customers for more than 18 months. MycoWorks currently operates two production facilities and is about to open a third commercial plant with a production capacity of 80,000 square feet of material per year. The company plans to use the $17M Series A financing to scale production of Reishi. Matt Scullin is CEO of MycoWorks.

Participated · Series B · Apr 2018

Renew Home combines Google Nest Renew and OhmConnect to offer load-shifting services that shift household energy use to off-peak or cleaner-grid times via smart thermostats and other devices. The offering today builds on Nest Renew functionality and OhmConnect’s platform, which has about 225,000 customers across thermostat brands and other devices; Google has not disclosed how many Nest devices use Nest Renew. OhmConnect is active in California, Texas and New York, and Renew Home plans to expand into new markets post-launch. The company intends to broaden beyond thermostat-based load shifting into whole-home energy management, including EV charging, solar systems, additional hardware partnerships and more nuanced energy-management software. Renew Home has set targets of accounting for 30 GW of shiftable load and serving 10 million homes by 2030. Financially, Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners is providing a $100 million investment and will be the majority owner, while Google will remain a minority shareholder and is not investing in this transaction; no valuation was disclosed. OhmConnect operates a residential energy flexibility platform that rewards customers for smarter at-home electricity use. Led by CEO Cisco DeVries, the company helps hundreds of thousands of customers manage their electricity and pays them for saving power when the grid is stressed and likely to utilize dirtier generation. OhmConnect has paid more than $17 million in rewards to customers. Customers of Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric and Con Edison can sign up for free, and Texas residents can select OhmConnect as their retail electric provider. The company plans to use its new funding to integrate with dozens of technology and appliance companies, expand into new markets and support the build-out of several gigawatts of flexible electric load across the United States. OhmConnect operates a residential demand-response program that pays customers for reducing electricity use during peak events and sells the collective savings back to the grid. The company enables hundreds of thousands of customers to earn cash and prizes for timely, smarter home energy use and to reduce their utility bills and carbon footprint. An estimated 40% of OhmConnect customers are low-to-moderate income families, and the platform aims to enroll users in disadvantaged communities. OhmConnect says its community cut 1 GWh of energy during the August 2020 heat wave—equivalent to taking 600,000 homes off the grid for an hour—and users earned $1.3 million from the company for those efforts. Future plans tied to the new funding include expanding flexible demand capacity, increasing connections with grid-responsive smart devices, and maintaining reliable reductions during grid events. The company was founded in 2014 and operates from Oakland, Calif. OhmConnect operates a demand-response platform that aggregates residential energy reductions via push notifications and payouts to users, effectively creating a virtual power plant. The company has about 150,000 users on its platform and has paid out roughly $1 million to customers during recent California brownouts and blackouts. OhmConnect has demonstrated material grid impact, engaging customers to reduce almost one gigawatt-hour of usage during peak stress events. Leadership includes CEO Cisco DeVries and a CTO who previously served as Zynga’s CTO. The company is positioned to scale as part of Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners’ Resilia initiative and to expand rewards-based demand-response participation across California. OhmConnect’s future plans with partners include rolling out smart devices, expanding residential participation, and integrating into broader distributed and bi-directional grid architectures. OhmConnect is an energy sharing service that lets households and apartment communities know when to share energy and pays participants for taking part. The company is led by CEO Matt Duesterberg and is based in San Francisco, California. OhmConnect's community of 300,000 energy sharers generates over 100 megawatts, the equivalent of four peaker power plants. The service coordinates residential load reductions and compensates users for participation. OhmConnect plans to use new funding to expand into markets beyond California, including New York, Texas and the rest of the country. Following the Series B, reported total funding stands at $15M.

Participated · Seed · Feb 2015

Credible operates a multi-lender marketplace that connects borrowers with vetted lenders for student loans, refinancing and personal loans. Its flagship product, LenderExpress, is an intelligent pre-qualification engine that shows borrowers the actual rates they’ll qualify for in real time without impacting credit scores. The platform emphasizes consumer control over data sharing and targets millennial borrowers seeking unbiased loan comparisons. Management says the company has seen rapid growth since launching LenderExpress, with more than 85,000 people qualifying for loan offers in 2016. Credible plans to use new funding to accelerate development of data-driven technology and continue rapid product innovation. Stephen Dash is the company’s founder and CEO, and the company is based in San Francisco. Credible is a multi-lender marketplace for student loans that secures firm, legally binding loan offers for borrowers to evaluate and select. The platform works with 12 lending partners and issues fixed credit quotes that are valid for 30 days. Credible also offers a student loan refinancing product for graduates to refinance federal and private student loans. The company earns revenue by taking a transaction fee from the lender once a credit line is accepted. Credible was founded in 2012 and is led by CEO Stephen Dash. According to Dash the addressable refinancing market totals about $200 billion, of which roughly $5 billion is actually being refinanced today. Credible Labs operates an independent marketplace for student loan refinancing, enabling recent graduates and young professionals to shop and compare offers from multiple lenders. The company is not a lender but a matchmaker that provides a single application to surface personalized refinancing options. Credible reports borrowers saved an average of $11,688 by refinancing through its platform in 2014. It has seen significant growth in lender participation and aims to remove friction in the refinancing process while giving lenders access to the types of borrowers they want to underwrite. Credible plans to use new funding to expand its team and build user-friendly features to help millennials make informed decisions about their finances. The company was highlighted as the winner of LAUNCH 2.0 at San Francisco’s LAUNCH Festival. Credible is a San Francisco-based startup operating a Kayak-style marketplace to simplify private student loan refinancing. Users complete a seven-question qualification, create a profile, link existing loans and submit a single offer request that lenders use to produce refinancing offers shown in a secure dashboard. The service is offered for free to borrowers; Credible plans to generate revenue by collecting fees on disbursed loans rather than through lead-generation. During its beta the startup enrolled 30,000 students and the article notes one borrower is projected to save more than $40,000 in interest over the life of a refinanced loan. Credible closed a $500,000 seed financing from a mix of venture funds and angel investors to support its launch and marketing. Founder Stephen Dash says the team intends to expand supported lenders over the coming year and explore applying the platform to other complex application processes in banking and insurance.