Led · Seed · May 2024

Ginger Desk offers on-demand, trained virtual assistants to allied health practitioners, managing appointments, patient communications, billing, and EMR workflows. The company was launched by naturopathic doctor Julie Durnan and is based in Vancouver, serving clients across Canada and the United States. It began as a service-first business, proved product-market fit through a pilot, and scaled to hundreds of customers while bootstrapping to profitability. Ginger Desk reports 100% year-over-year growth and operates a 40-person team that includes 30 permanent VAs. The seed funding will finance a move from “cobbled-together” off-the-shelf software to a custom tech platform scheduled to launch this summer. The company plans to layer artificial intelligence onto the platform in the fall while remaining a tech-enabled service that preserves human, concierge-style VAs.

Participated · Seed · Aug 2023

Blanka operates a one-stop private-label beauty and wellness platform that handles product procurement, personalization, branding, fulfillment, and shipping for independent brands. The platform sources and customizes high-quality North American-made products and removes high manufacturing minimums, long production lead times, and analogue order forms. Blanka says a new beauty brand can be launched in under an hour for less than $200. Over the past 12 months the company has seen steady growth and now reports thousands of brands subscribed to the platform, fueled entirely by organic marketing and integrations with partners like Shopify. Management positions the product to unlock faster innovation for brands of all sizes by dramatically reducing barriers to entry. The company emphasizes continued expansion of its platform and partner integrations to support the growing direct-to-consumer beauty market.

Led · Seed · May 2022

Hostfully offers a Property Management Platform and Digital Guidebooks that let professional managers centralize booking calendars, adjust pricing, distribute inventory, automate guest communications, and collect payments. Its platform is used for more than 40,000 properties in 80 countries, and its digital guidebooks (available in 15 languages) are viewed more than two million times each month. The company plans to add capabilities including a native mobile app and multi-unit inventory handling. It also intends to expand its team with hires focused on sales and customer success. Hostfully will use the new funding to accelerate those product and go-to-market initiatives. The company has raised a total of $7.0M to date. Hostfully builds an end-to-end property management platform aimed at helping vacation rental property managers increase bookings and boost revenue. The company was founded in 2015 by Margot Schmorak and is based in San Francisco. Hostfully’s product is positioned for property managers seeking recurring revenue streams from vacation rentals. According to investors cited in the article, the company has a proven model and is generating real recurring revenue. The article does not disclose user counts or exact revenue figures. Recent financing activity indicates continued investor interest in its market and product.

Participated · Equity · May 2022

Fable provides content, testing, assessment tools and integrations that help product teams build and monitor digital accessibility across their products. Its platform includes advisory resources and a dashboard for tracking accessibility metrics and integrating insights into developers’ workflows. The company initially focused on vision and motor disabilities and is now expanding support to cognitive and hearing impairments. Fable is also working to create more inclusive AI training datasets and offer testing for accessibility in AI models. The product emphasizes empowering internal teams to own accessibility rather than having Fable do the work for them. The company raised a $25M Series B to fund new teams and products around cognitive and hearing impairments and AI expertise. Fable operates a marketplace/community of accessibility professionals—many of whom have disabilities—to provide testing, feedback, and consulting that helps companies design accessible digital products from the start. The company’s core offerings include on-demand expert testing and advice and a newly developed corporate training product called Fable Upskill, which delivers video-based, team-specific accessibility courses. Fable positions accessibility as a product-first practice and aims to make “Inclusive Product Development the status quo.” It counts Microsoft, Shopify, Slack and Meta among its customers. The company was founded in 2018 and previously raised a $1.5 million seed round in summer 2020. The recent financing is intended to scale the existing products and accelerate rollout of Upskill to meet growing customer demand. Fable connects digital teams with people with disabilities for on-demand usability testing and development feedback. Customers can send prototypes or mockups and receive evaluations within 48 hours. Clients choose which disabilities, assistive technologies and platforms to target (for example, blind users on mobile browsers). Fable aims to integrate accessibility early in development, provide steady work to disabled testers, and publicize improved testing methodologies and data to raise industry standards. The company calls out issues like inaccessible third‑party integrations and remote-work–related disabilities as reasons to design accessibility from the start. Fable has raised a $1.5M seed round to scale its service and operations. Founders include co‑founders Alwar Pillai and Abid Virani (co‑founder and COO).

Led · Series A · Sep 2019

ePact operates a cloud-based emergency preparedness network that enables users to build support networks and securely store and exchange medical information, waivers, and consent forms. Its “peer-to-peer-to-peer” system allows users to invite a third party to receive full access to emergency contacts, medical issues, allergies, immunizations and special needs. The platform includes communication tools for use during emergencies and describes itself as the “LinkedIn for emergencies.” ePact’s system connects approximately 400 community organizations across North America and about two million families spanning 140 countries. The company partners with organizations such as the Canadian Red Cross, National Recreation and Parks Association, BC Hockey, and the YMCA. Co-founded in 2012 by Christine Sommers and Kirsten Koppang Telford, Sommers serves as CEO. ePACT offers a cloud-hosted system that converts traditional paper emergency, health, and contact forms into a free electronic network. That e-network is used by about 2 million families across 140 countries and by roughly 400 organizations. The company was founded in 2012 by CEO Christine Sommers and President & COO Kirsten Koppang Telford, who launched ePACT after a personal experience during the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami. Prior to ePACT, Sommers ran a web consulting company and Telford was a principal at Common Junction Strategies. Customers and partners include Daxko, Girl Guides of Canada, the National Recreation and Parks Association, and the YMCA. With the recent funding, ePACT plans to scale faster, expand more in the U.S. and enter new markets, and prioritize product enhancements and new hires. ePACT operates an app-based emergency network designed to help personnel stay informed, retain control, and ensure safety and business continuity in the wake of disasters. The company announced it was selected in the second competitive round of the Western Innovation Initiative (WINN) and received $1 million in funding from that program. WINN provides repayable contributions to Western Canada-based technology companies and requires participants to go through a multi-stage application and selection process. Just over a year earlier, ePACT closed a $1 million seed round from the Byye Group, Yaletown Ventures, and BDC. ePACT said it will use the new WINN funds to support expansion of its network across Canada and the U.S. CEO Christine Sommers framed the WINN award as recognition from the Government of Canada and a direct assist to the company’s growth across North America.