Participated · Series D · May 2022

Material Bank is a NYC-based scalable digital marketplace that lets design professionals and brands search, sample, and specify architectural and design materials. The platform powers complex searches across hundreds of brands in seconds and pairs that software with a large-scale robotic logistics facility. Samples ordered by midnight ET are delivered in a single box by 10:30 AM the next day. The company serves more than 90,000 active members and connects global brand partners through its logistics network. Material Bank plans to use new capital to foster relationships within the real estate and construction industries, expand its global presence, and pursue potential strategic acquisitions. The company is led by Founder and CEO Adam I. Sandow. Material Bank operates a marketplace for design professionals and brands to discover and sample architectural, design, and construction materials. Led by founder, chairman and CEO Adam I. Sandow, the platform connects 375 brands with over 65,000 members performing almost 700,000 material searches a month. The marketplace is supported by a 380,000 square foot logistics facility near FedEx’s World Hub in Memphis, Tennessee, which uses autonomous robots to fulfill tens of thousands of sample requests nightly. Material Bank intends to use recent funding to scale teams and infrastructure, expand into new verticals, pursue strategic acquisitions, and seed long-term growth initiatives. The company is based in Miami, Florida, and has raised $157M in total funding after a $100M Series C. Bob Mylod of Annox Capital will join the board as part of the financing. Material Bank operates a logistics platform that aggregates materials from hundreds of manufacturers and allows designers and architects to search, filter and order physical samples. Orders placed by midnight ET are fulfilled from a Memphis facility adjacent to FedEx’s sorting center and can arrive by 10am ET the next morning in a single reusable box. The company combines aggregation and rapid delivery with automation — partnering with Locus Robotics in its facility — while paying human workers about $17.50 an hour. Material Bank’s service is free to architects and designers and uses a hybrid SaaS model for manufacturers that includes a monthly listing fee plus transactional fees for leads and sample orders. Founded by Adam I. Sandow and launched in January 2019, the business spun out of Sandow Group and was built on plans to create tools and services beyond media. Material Bank reported record revenues in March during the coronavirus period and expected to beat that record in April; the company has raised a total of $55 million since inception.

Participated · Series C · Dec 2021

Lydia began as a peer-to-peer payment app and progressively became the dominant mobile payment app in France. The app now offers virtual and physical Visa debit cards, shared sub-accounts, small loans (€100–€3,000), savings accounts and recently added stock and crypto trading via a partnership with Bitpanda. Trading supports fractional shares and 24/7 micro-investing, a feature positioned as a major growth opportunity. The company uses a freemium model with premium subscriptions to drive monetization as users adopt more products. Lydia reports 5.5 million users and says one-third of French people aged 18–35 have an account. It plans to hire 800 people over three years (160 in 2022) and aims for 10 million European customers by 2025. Lydia began as a peer-to-peer mobile payments app and has expanded into a broader financial super app offering virtual and plastic Visa debit cards, personal IBANs, account aggregation, and flexible sub-accounts. The app supports instant SEPA transfers, direct deposit, money pots, shared accounts, premium plans, and a credit line; the company has also partnered to expand credit offerings (notably with Younited Credit). Product work in 2020 included a full redesign, new premium tiers, card infrastructure migration, and alerts for account aggregation to drive monetization. Lydia is actively expanding geographically (starting with Portugal) while aiming to keep local IBANs and cards for better acceptance. The company reports more than 4 million users and says transactions have doubled year-over-year, and CEO Cyril Chiche has emphasized moving the business toward profitability. Management plans to test more financial products on the new platform, including credit, savings, and investment offerings. Lydia is a mobile payment app widely used in France that has expanded into a broader money‑management and financial marketplace. The product started as peer‑to‑peer payments and now offers multiple sub‑accounts, virtual and physical payment cards, shared accounts, and easy money pots. Through an in‑app marketplace users can access third‑party financial products such as micro‑loans up to €1,000, insurance, bank‑account sign‑up incentives, and utility or mobile switching services. The company emphasizes real‑time control of funds and aims to become a meta‑banking mobile hub rather than a traditional bank. Lydia has attracted roughly 3 million users, with 25% penetration among French 18–30 year olds, adds about 5,000 signups per day, and employs about 90 people. Future plans highlighted by management include expanding the marketplace of financial products and accelerating growth in foreign markets. Lydia started as a Venmo-style peer-to-peer payments service and has expanded to let users pay online, in stores via QR code, and on e-commerce sites using a phone-linked account. The product includes a connected plastic card, virtual cards that can be added to Apple Pay, instant free P2P transfers, and IBAN top-ups. Lydia processes around 1 million transactions per month, representing roughly €25 million in monthly volume, and has more than a million registered users. The company signs up about 2,000 new users per day and reports that transaction growth is outpacing user growth. Lydia has launched in the U.K., Ireland, Spain and Portugal and plans further expansion into Germany, Austria and other European markets. The team is based around a main office in Paris and had about 40 employees at the time of the article, with hiring plans to reach roughly 60 by end of 2018 and 90 by end of 2019. Lydia is a French mobile app that enables fee-free peer-to-peer payments. The company added a customizable physical MasterCard that can be managed in-app, with instant transactions and controls to block/unblock online payments, foreign payments, ATM withdrawals and set payment limits. At the time of the article Lydia had 500,000 users in France and planned to expand beyond its home market. With the new funding, the company planned launches in the U.K., Germany and Spain during the first half of 2017 and set a target of reaching 3 million users within two years. The $7.8 million (€7 million) raise is intended to support its European expansion. Lydia faces competition from regional players such as Revolut and Cookies as it scales.

Participated · Series D · Nov 2021

Cloudbeds provides a cloud-based hospitality management platform that combines tools for operations, revenue management, guest experience, and marketing with a marketplace of third-party integrations. The platform is designed to help independent hoteliers and hosts grow revenue, streamline operations and enable memorable guest experiences. The company serves customers of 22,000+ independent properties across 157 countries. Led by CEO Adam Harris and COO Richard Castle, Cloudbeds raised $150M in a Series D to support growth. The round brought total venture funding to $253M and was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 with participation from Echo Street, Walleye Capital, Viking Global Investors, PeakSpan Capital and Counterpart Ventures. Cloudbeds intends to use the funds to grow its team, accelerate customer acquisition, expand product offerings, and invest in delivering technology to the industry. Cloudbeds provides a hospitality management suite that offers tools to manage properties of any type and size. Its software is used by more than 20,000 hotels, hostels, inns and alternative accommodations across 157 countries. Led by CEO Adam Harris and COO Richard Castle, the company was founded in 2012 and is based in San Diego, CA. Cloudbeds has over 400 employees with local teams in 40 countries and staff speaking over 30 languages. In November 2020 Cloudbeds raised $82M in a Series C financing. The company intends to use the funds to further invest in its technology platform. Cloudbeds develops an all-in-one hospitality software suite that includes property management, channel management, and a commission-free booking engine. The company’s channel manager, myallocator, is a popular standalone solution used by thousands of properties. Founded in late 2012 and led by CEO Adam Harris and President/COO Richard Castle, Cloudbeds employs 102 people worldwide. It has offices in San Diego, São Paulo, and Dublin and services tens of thousands of properties in 120+ countries. The company is using the recent financing to continue expanding operations globally.