Participated · Seed · Apr 2021

Sigo is a Latinx-founded managing general agency that provides affordable access to auto insurance for underserved immigrant and Latinx customers via a natively bilingual, mobile-first platform. The company has written hundreds of thousands of dollars in premiums through its agency business and maintains a customer retention rate above 80% in California and Texas. Sigo removes biased rate factors from underwriting and plans to launch its own insurance product in Texas that replaces discriminatory metrics with telematics and a Spanish-language safe driving app. Founded in 2019 and operating from Jersey City, N.J., Sigo currently serves customers in California and Texas. The team is 100% Black- and Latinx-led and is supported by advisors with decades of insurance experience. Mentorship from programs like Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator and gener8tor has aided the company's growth and hiring expansion.

Participated · Seed · Apr 2021

Sigo Seguros operates a digital-first platform underwriting non-standard auto insurance, enabling customers to buy policies in minutes from their phones and avoid onerous downpayment fees. The company targets working-class drivers and initially focuses on Hispanic and Latino communities by offering a full bilingual experience in Spanish. Its underwriting technology has produced profitable loss ratios, distinguishing it from other auto insurtech cycles. Sigo reported over 500% growth in Gross Written Premiums last year and payback periods measured in weeks. The financing is intended to fund expansion into new markets with large immigrant communities and limited suitable insurance options. As part of the investment, Rafael Varela will join Sigo’s board of directors. Sigo Seguros provides bilingual, mobile‑first auto insurance tailored to immigrant and working‑class drivers, with a focus on Latino and Spanish‑speaking communities. The company’s product eliminates additional fees and biased rating factors such as credit score and employment, and offers a bilingual end‑to‑end customer experience. It launched a proprietary product in August 2021 and is headquartered in Texas; the company was founded in 2019. Sigo reports it exceeded prior‑year sales in just the first half of 2023 and sees payback periods measured in weeks and months. The company plans to double its team by the end of the year and use new funding to expand customer‑facing technology, continue digitizing underwriting, and expand into new markets with large immigrant communities. Sigo Seguros is an Austin, TX-based insurtech founded in 2019 that provides affordable auto insurance for Spanish-speaking and immigrant communities. It offers a fully bilingual, mobile-first platform that simplifies the insurance experience and launched its inclusive auto insurance product in August 2021. The company provides transparent pricing without fees or biased rating factors and offers coverage to customers with foreign IDs or licenses. Sigo currently serves Texas and plans to expand into more states in 2023. It recently raised $5.4m in seed funding to expand operations and broaden access to equitable insurance for immigrant and working-class populations. The company has made key hires, including a Vice President of Insurance and a Senior Product Manager, and will continue hiring across insurance, technology, and business functions. Sigo is a managing general agency founded in 2019 that provides auto insurance to underserved immigrant and Latinx customers through a tech-enabled, bilingual, mobile-first direct-to-consumer platform. Headquartered in Jersey City, NJ, the company currently offers coverage in California and Texas. Sigo raised $1.5M in seed funding to support its growth. The company plans to use the funds to continue expanding operations and broaden the reach of its auto insurance product among immigrant and Latinx communities. The startup was founded by Néstor Hugo Solari and Júlio Erdos. No operating metrics were disclosed in the article.

Participated · Series A · Jun 2018

LendStreet provides technology-based solutions and resources to help consumers in financial distress reduce debt, increase credit scores, and improve savings. Led by Founder and CEO Jerry Nemorin, the company works with financial organizations to negotiate discounts with creditors and then restructures debts as loans with lower, fixed, affordable payments. Since inception LendStreet says it has helped customers reduce their debt by nearly 40% and improve credit scores by an average of 100 points. The company closed a $7M Series A equity round and secured $110M in debt financing to scale the platform. LendStreet intends to use the funds to expand reach and serve more consumers in need of debt restructuring and consolidation.

Participated · Seed · Apr 2017

Propel's core product is Fresh EBT, a free app that lets users check their SNAP/food-stamp balance, find stores that accept benefits, track spending, and locate job listings. The app is free for consumers and government agencies; Propel generates revenue through digital coupons and a job board. Propel reports more than 1.5 million monthly users and says over 30,000 people have applied for jobs this year via the app. CEO and founder Jimmy Chen frames the company's mission as building "a more user-friendly safety net" and emphasizes that Propel is a for-profit pursuing social impact. The company positions its product as both a consumer tool and a channel for employers and retailers to reach low-income users. Financially, Propel has moved from a seed round into a larger institutional raise, using product engagement and the job board as monetization levers to scale. Propel operates Fresh EBT, a free smartphone app that lets Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants check their EBT card balance, browse nearby deals, see which stores accept SNAP, and create shopping lists. The company says more than 250,000 people use Fresh EBT at least once a week. Propel’s founder and CEO Jimmy Chen describes the business model as scaling impact by growing the user base or finding users more grocery savings. The startup plans to expand beyond food stamps to help users access a broader set of services and to create a more user-friendly safety net. Propel positions itself as a privately funded organization that can continue serving low-income Americans regardless of political changes to public-sector programs. The team has highlighted uncertainty around policy but noted SNAP had not been significantly affected by the administration at the time of the article. Propel builds apps aimed at helping SNAP enrollees access benefits and services. The company is based in Cobble Hill and grew out of Blue Ridge Labs, a civic tech incubator. Propel recently won local awards including Make it in BK and Civic Startup of the Year at the 2016 Brooklyn Innovation Awards. The company was selected for the Future Cities Accelerator and will receive a $100,000 grant to support hiring, with an emphasis on technical positions and a current search for a full‑stack software engineer. Participation in the accelerator also provides training in rapid prototyping and fundraising, mentorship, executive coaching, and pro bono financial modeling. Propel’s CEO Jimmy Chen cited networking and mentorship as key benefits of the program.

Participated · Equity · Jun 2016

Ascend Consumer Finance is a San Francisco-based financial technology company that has developed Adaptive Risk Pricing technology to let consumers demonstrate real-time creditworthiness through positive financial behaviors. Its first product, RateRewards, enables borrowers to reduce monthly interest expense by displaying and tracking positive financial behaviors throughout a loan’s life. The company is led by Steve Carlson (CEO) and Scott Crawford (VP of Product and Marketing). Ascend raised $11M in venture capital to accelerate loan origination growth and enhance the RateRewards user experience. Backers include a mix of venture firms and industry programs supporting its growth and product development. Ascend Consumer Financial has launched RateRewards, a product that introduces dynamic pricing into three‑year personal loans of up to $10,000 for borrowers with FICO scores of 580–660. Under RateRewards, borrowers accept a slightly higher initial rate with the possibility of earning up to a 50% equivalent interest‑expense reduction by meeting tracked financial behaviors over four months. The company’s Adaptive Risk Pricing platform monitors four factors—two from credit bureaus (reducing overall monthly debt by at least $50 and limiting credit‑card spending), one via Yodlee (increasing emergency savings by at least $50/month), and a willingness to pledge a car title if owned. Monthly repayments are adjusted downward when behaviors are met (the nominal interest rate is not legally revised), and reductions can be reversed but never exceed the original monthly payment. CEO Steve Carlson, formerly of Intuit and HSBC and an advisor to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, says the product targets roughly 110 million U.S. non‑prime borrowers who may be better risks than their scores indicate. Ascend plans to staff up operations and marketing using proceeds from its seed raise and expects future incorporation of real‑time phone monitoring into pricing triggers.