Participated · Seed · Oct 2024

Augmodo develops "physical AI" by capturing egocentric data to let computers see the world through a worker's eyes and assist in real time. The company's core capability is understanding a person, a hand, an object, and the surrounding 3D space to enable tasks across physical work. Augmodo positions that the same intelligence can power order fulfillment in ecommerce as well as wrench-handling on factory floors. Following recent traction, Augmodo raised $21M at a $350M valuation to scale into new verticals including warehousing, auditing, maintenance, manufacturing, and automotive. The company said it is scaling fast and hiring aggressively to execute on that roadmap. The article did not provide revenue, user, or other financial metrics.

Participated · Series C · Mar 2024

Kevel sells software that helps retailers and brands run onsite advertising: search ads, an ad server to manage and place ads, an audience tool for first‑party data, and a bundled retail media cloud. The company counts customers such as Klarna, Delivery Hero and Ticketmaster. Kevel, formerly Adzerk and 14 years old, emphasizes lower monthly fees and focuses on onsite ad formats. Management says it previously prioritized R&D and will use the new funding to scale sales and marketing; it also hired Puja Rios as president and COO. Kevel competes with Criteo, Epsilon and Microsoft in the retail‑media space. The company is working with the IAB to develop standards to enable cross‑retailer search ad buying and aims to have a proof of concept within six months. Kevel provides an API platform that allows retail, e‑commerce, and marketplace customers to build personalized ad servers quickly and to integrate native ad units into website designs using first‑party data. The platform is cookie‑less, JavaScript‑free and offers server‑side access and customizable tools that enable features like demographics, frequency capping, and past purchase data while keeping client data secure. Kevel works directly with businesses to help monetize ads without negatively impacting user experience and counts customers including Ticketmaster, Klarna, WeTransfer, and Yelp. Led by founder and CEO James Avery, the company rebranded from Adzerk in December 2020 and has since signed numerous partnerships with leading enterprises. Kevel raised $10M in Series B funding and plans to use the proceeds to expand the team, sign more partnerships, develop product features and API offerings, and expand further into retail media. Kevel (fka Adzerk) provides infrastructure APIs that enable clients to build custom digital ad platforms for sponsored listings, internal promotions, native ads and more. Its APIs let companies outsource ad serving, targeting, decisioning, and reporting so they can focus on product innovation such as self-serve UIs and new placements for sponsored content. Customers including Ticketmaster, Strava and Mozilla have launched ad platforms on Kevel. The company intends to use the $11M Series A proceeds to continue expanding operations and its business reach. Kevel was founded in 2010 by CEO James Avery and is based in New York City. Adzerk is developing a next-generation ad serving platform that emphasizes real-time reporting, ultra-fast ad serving, and support for building ad networks. The company is enhancing its platform to give publishers and ad networks more flexibility and control. Adzerk is closing a $650,000 seed round from a mix of institutional and angel investors to fund those product improvements. Customers already include Stack Overflow, StatSheet and a number of ad networks. The startup grew out of two niche ad networks, The Lounge and Ruby Row, which were run by founder James Avery. Avery is also the co-founder of TekPub.

Participated · Equity · Jul 2018

Pulsate provides a mobile-first, personalized member engagement platform that enables credit unions and community banks to deliver data-driven, localized and relevant mobile marketing communications. The company works with over 270 credit unions and community banks, reaching 20 million consumers. Pulsate positions its solution to help community financial institutions deliver personalized, timely and relevant outreach to members in moments of need to deepen relationships and drive deposit growth. The company has experienced rapid growth and rising demand over the last year. Pulsate plans to use the Series A proceeds to accelerate growth, expand staff and resources, and continue empowering community FIs to cut through digital clutter and communicate more effectively. Its stated goal is to boost loyalty and retention for clients by enabling targeted, timely engagement across digital channels. Pulsate operates a mobile marketing engagement platform centred on proximity marketing and captures millions of mobile data points daily to deliver real-time insights and contextual interactions. The company says its platform enables clients to bring digital assets to life and continuously engage customers through contextually rich mobile experiences. Clients named in the article include SITA, Amadeus, NCR, Heineken, Dunnhumby, Boyle Sports and Miami Airport. Management has changed recently: Sarah Martin was appointed CEO while founder Patrick Leddy departed the board on June 15, and investors have signalled support for a turnaround under her leadership. Financially, the operating company Pulsate Mobile Ltd had equity invested of €2,340,000 in December 2017, posted a €620,000 loss in 2017 (after a €820,000 loss in 2016) and reported accumulated losses of €2.1m at year-end 2017. The company began 2018 with €220,000 in cash, had eight staff (down from 13 the prior year) and secured additional shareholder funding in mid-2018. Pulsate is a mobile marketing software provider based in Dublin, Ireland, and San Francisco, CA. Led by CEO Patrick Leddy and CMO John Walker, the company provides a platform that understands customer behavior across location, app usage and CRM. Its product allows mobile marketers to send personalized campaigns, increase user engagement and deliver experiences to build brand loyalty. FinSMEs reported on 02/08/2016 that Pulsate raised $1.5m in funding from a group of investors. The company intends to use the funds to further its US growth and expansion. Pulsate operates an end-to-end context marketing platform that integrates via an SDK into new or existing apps to surface relevant content based on user behavior and preferences. The platform collects in-app behavioral data, social data, geofences and Beacon signals to build layered contextual segments. Founder and CEO Patrick Leddy says Pulsate combines behavioral data, interests and past purchases so that location is used alongside richer context. The company will use the $1.2 million raised to expand its platform and service customers. Competitors called out in the article include Gimbal, Urban Airship and Estimote.

Participated · Series B · Feb 2016

Label Insight is a Chicago-based provider of product transparency solutions that offers a SaaS transparency platform for CPG product information. The platform covers more than 80% of top-selling food, pet, and personal care items in the U.S. and uses proprietary data science and machine learning to capture product labeling information and create more than 22,000 unique custom attributes per product. Its technology powers analytics, marketing, merchandising, and ecommerce solutions for customers across the retail, brand manufacturer, government, and technology industries. Customers include more than 25 top CPG companies and 12 leading retailers. The company plans to use the funds to hire data science professionals, continue product development, and accelerate customer growth. Label Insight is led by CEO Paul Schaut. Label Insight provides a product data platform that adds proprietary smart attributes—nutrients, allergens and other metadata—to basic food and beverage product information, enabling CPG brands and retailers to gain deeper insights into their assortments. Led by CEO Anton Xavier, the company supports retailer-customized data views and participation in industry efforts such as the SmartLabel™ transparency initiative. Label Insight also works with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on ingredient and nutrient analysis initiatives. The company will use the new funding to develop new products, broaden custom data views and expand its data science capabilities. The investment includes strategic partnership aspects that will allow KPMG member firms to offer clients access to Label Insight’s platform and help the company enter new markets and build relationships with retailers, manufacturers and government agencies. To date Label Insight has raised a total of $14m.

Participated · Series A · Jan 2016

Askuity is a retail analytics platform that combines cloud-based big data processing with analytics and mobile technology to enable product companies to grow and optimize their retail business across sales, marketing and supply chain. The platform automatically collects and harmonizes multiple, disparate point-of-sale and inventory data sources—whether from retailer portals, EDI or spreadsheets—into a single view of a product company’s retail business. Customers include brands such as Philips, Salvatore Ferragamo, Bauer, PetSafe, Broan-NuTone and Ingersoll Rand. Led by CEO and co-founder Eric Green, the company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Askuity closed a $2M Series A and intends to use the funds to accelerate sales and marketing efforts in both new and existing markets. The round included participation from existing investor dunnhumby Ventures and a group of angel investors with retail and consumer goods experience. Askuity operates a cloud-based cross-retailer big data analytics platform that provides retailers and vendors with real-time visibility into store-level activity. The solution ingests store- and product-level sell-through, pricing and inventory data to generate sales, marketing and supply chain analytics. These insights help optimize merchandising and promotions, improve on-shelf availability and reduce out-of-stock situations to enhance the customer experience. Led by CEO and co-founder Eric Green, the company serves both retailers and vendors with a focus on actionable store-level metrics. Askuity plans to use new funding to accelerate penetration into retail markets. The company is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.