Participated · Seed · Nov 2025

Founded in 2021, Farm to Feed runs a business-to-business digital marketplace that aggregates surplus or cosmetically imperfect fruits and vegetables and matches them with commercial buyers. The platform streamlines logistics, manages orders, and facilitates seamless customer interactions, helping reduce post-harvest losses that can reach 40 % of produce in Kenya. By redirecting would-be waste, the company increases farmer earnings, lowers food system emissions, and supplies sustainably sourced produce to buyers. Farm to Feed has registered 6,500 farmers, sold over 2.1 million kilograms of produce, and averted 247 tonnes of CO₂-equivalent emissions while recording 100 % year-on-year growth. With the new capital, the startup plans to deepen its presence in Kenya, enter neighboring African markets, upgrade its digital infrastructure, and launch a semi-processed product line to capture higher-value markets. The firm positions itself as a climate-resilient supply-chain enabler for Sub-Saharan Africa’s food system.

Participated · Seed · Apr 2021

Numida is a Kampala, Uganda-based fintech that provides unsecured working capital loans to African micro- and small businesses using proprietary credit models and tech-enabled underwriting. Customers apply via the Numida app in minutes and can receive capital within a day instead of borrowing from informal lenders or family. Since 2021 the company has provided $20m in working capital to 27,000 businesses in East Africa. Numida intends to reinforce its Ugandan presence and launch in two new African markets while growing its active client base to 40,000 businesses. The company plans to double its team to about 200 people across credit operations, data, product development, and growth over the next 18 months. Led by CEO Mina Shahid, Numida will use the new funding to support these expansion and hiring plans. Numida began as a bookkeeping pilot in 2016 and pivoted in 2017 to focus on lending to semi-formal micro and small businesses in East Africa. The company uses a proprietary credit score and risk-based pricing to offer unsecured working-capital loans of up to $3,500 that can be disbursed in under two hours. Numida says it has provided more than $2 million in unsecured credit to roughly 3,000 businesses and currently disburses around $250,000 per month, reporting strong collections, repayment rates and client retention. Its underwriting model was built off 15,000 loans and the company iterated for months before scaling; since October 2019 it has grown lending volumes by 6x. Numida focuses on business fundamentals and cash-flow data rather than broad social or mobile data to underwrite borrowers. With the new funding it plans to expand aggressively in Uganda, pilot in a West African market (preferably Ghana), and introduce additional services such as payments, micro-insurance and deposits.

Led · Series A · Aug 2020

Phool.co is an IIT Kanpur‑incubated biomaterial startup and fragrance‑focused wellness brand best known for award‑winning incense made from temple flower waste. The company holds Fair for Life - Fairtrade and Ecocert Organic & Natural certifications and offers a suite of certified natural products. Phool developed Fleather®, a non‑animal, non‑plastic leather alternative with a solid IP portfolio and pilots signed with major fashion houses. The brand reports 130% year‑over‑year growth and is targeting the $23B global home fragrance market and the $550B global leather goods industry via Fleather®. Phool plans to scale operations, expand into aromatherapy‑based personal care, and accelerate R&D to commercialize its Fleather® technology. The company has received multiple international recognitions and aims to build India’s largest fragrance brand. Phool.co manufactures charcoal-free luxury incense sticks from temple flowers and has developed a flower-cycling technology called Fleather that the company says is a viable alternative to animal leather. Founded by Ankit Agarwal and Prateek Kumar in July 2017, the startup focuses on a circular-economy model that targets environmental, social, and financial sustainability. The company sources floral waste and has expanded operations to Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh. During the COVID-19 lockdown it sourced flower waste directly from distressed horticulture farmers to sustain its supply chain and provide income to farmers. Phool.co says it has provided dignified work to dozens of women by choosing not to fully automate certain processes. The startup positions its products as natural alternatives to synthetic chemical-based goods and aims to address temple-waste problems in India.

Led · Seed · Nov 2018

Kinvolved provides software and services designed to reduce chronic absenteeism and increase daily student attendance by combining technology tools with human interventions. The company targets the behavioral and external factors affecting attendance, including poverty, racism, and socio-economic exclusion. Kinvolved is led by co-founder and CEO Miriam Altman and co-founder and CPO Alexandra Meis. The organization operates as a social enterprise focused on increasing student achievement through its holistic approach. It recently closed a $1.54M seed funding round to support its work. Kinvolved plans to use the funds to support sales growth, deepen product research and development, and expand client services offerings. Kinvolved builds an attendance-focused communication app that lets parents, teachers and administrators share student attendance information. The platform is personalized and data-driven and delivers attendance alerts directly to parents' phones rather than through mailers or in-person conferences. Cofounder Miriam Altman, a former NYC high school teacher, said she launched the company after noticing parents were often uninformed of absences for six weeks or longer. Altman wrote that when parents were informed promptly she saw immediate improvements in attendance and academic performance. The company announced it is part of the Notation Capital portfolio and posted about the partnership on March 14, 2016. Technical.ly and other outlets have previously covered Kinvolved, including a profile in September 2014 and a New York Times profile referenced by Notation.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2015

Watsi operates a crowdfunding platform that channels 100% of patient donations to pay for medical procedures and maintains a structured electronic medical record system for partner hospitals. The platform profiles patients and hospitals to enable ongoing due diligence and outcome tracking, including metrics like 30‑day readmission. Watsi has supported over 5,000 patients in 20 countries and aims to reach 1 million patients by 2020. The organization plans to hire engineers to improve donor experience and build a social giving product and a licensable platform. Revenues from licensing the donation platform are intended to cover future operational costs and reduce the need for philanthropic operational rounds. The current $3.5M donation is explicitly intended to fund operations and platform development so Watsi can focus future fundraising on patient donations. Watsi is a San Francisco, CA-based global crowdfunding platform for healthcare that enables users to donate as little as $5 to directly fund life-changing medical care for people in need. The company raised $1.2M in funding. Backers included Paul Graham, Tencent, Y Combinator, Ron Conway, Vinod Khosla, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, Joe Greenstein, Eric Wu, Geoff Ralston, Uprising, Jasmine Social Investments, InnoSpring/TEEC Angel Fund and Michael Sidgmore. The company intends to use the funds to support operations. It is Y Combinator-backed. The team leadership cited in the article includes Chase Adam (Vision), Jesse Cooke (Tech), Grace Garey (Marketing) and Howard Glenn (Partnerships). Watsi is a nonprofit crowdfunding platform that lets donors directly fund low-cost, high-impact medical treatments using a Kickstarter-like model. Donors can give as little as $5 and connect personally with beneficiaries via individual profiles that describe each person’s condition and needs. The organization works with doctors, providers and payors to secure donated time, materials and equipment to reduce overhead and leverage lower procedure costs abroad. Watsi.org funds operational costs separately and the site pays credit-card processing fees so that 100% of crowd donations go to patient treatments. Early traction includes 75 treatments funded, about $60,000 raised for patients from 1,300 donations, operations in eight countries, 20% of donors returning for a second gift, 30% of giving from outside the U.S., and roughly 28% average week-over-week growth. Y Combinator’s backing and public endorsements from figures like Paul Graham and a philanthropic contribution from Ron Conway provide validation and support for scaling.