Participated · Seed · Jun 2022

Corvus Robotics sells the Corvus One, an AI-driven, infrastructure-free drone system that performs autonomous inventory checks in narrow and wide aisles and can operate in lights-out distribution centers. The system uses computer vision and generative AI for real-world navigation and obstacle detection, allowing drones to fly safely at walking speed without added reflectors, stickers, or beacons. Corvus One offers advanced barcode scanning in any orientation and integrates with or without a WMS via CSV/XLS exports. The company promotes measurable operational benefits—10x labor productivity, 99.9% inventory accuracy, up to 10% reclaimed pallet racking space, reduced shrinkage, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in labor savings. Deployments require no Wi‑Fi installation and can be implemented in less than a week. Corvus operates a data-driven “robots as a service” model and lists customers including MSI Surfaces, Staci Americas, and Quanta Computer; the company says recent funding will support growing customer adoption and continued product development. Corvus Robotics develops custom indoor drones to automate warehouse inventory management. Their aircraft include indoor obstacle avoidance, barcode reading in low-light conditions, and an on-board autonomy stack to operate in poor Wi-Fi. The company positions its product as an end-to-end suite for inventory visibility across the warehouse workflow, starting with drone-based inventory scans and aiming to track items from entry to exit. Corvus is Boston-based and a Y Combinator graduate. It received a $5 million seed round as part of its most recent financing. The new capital is primarily allocated to scaling the technology and advancing R&D, with the company citing labor shortages and supply-chain disruptions as demand drivers.

Participated · Seed · Nov 2021

Elude is a mobile travel discovery app that prioritizes budget-first search and presents combined flight and hotel packages rather than showing one or the other. The platform features a personalized onboarding experience that customizes trip packages and suggests future travel based on user preferences. Since launching in August, Elude has attracted over 25,000 sign-ups, with many searches coming from the coasts, Colorado and Texas. The company plans to hire engineers to support feature rollouts and is building a web version and an Android app in the coming months. Product roadmap items include improved personalization to maximize recommendations and expanding beyond flight and hotel offerings. Elude is also expanding marketing efforts and plans to introduce paid advertising. Elude is a budget-first travel discovery mobile app that presents personalized flight and hotel packages based on users' budgets, time frames and trip preferences. The Los Angeles-based platform taps the same flight and hotel databases used by other online travel companies and only suggests hotels rated 3.5 stars and above. Founders Alex Simon (CEO) and Frankie Scerbo (CMO) conceived the idea three years ago after struggling to find trips within a set budget. Prior to the public launch the product was in private beta and amassed about 40,000 people on its waitlist. Elude launched its mobile app to help bridge users from “look mode” to “book mode” more quickly by revealing budget-feasible destinations users might not otherwise consider. The company plans to use the $2.1M in seed funding to advance technology, marketing, operations and customer support.

Participated · Series A · Sep 2021

Mast Reforestation provides post-wildfire reforestation services and is integrating biomass burial (Biomass Carbon Removal & Storage, BiCRS) to generate restorative carbon removal credits. The company is launching its first restorative biomass burial project, Mast Wood Preserve MT1 in central Montana, with burial activities planned for 2025 and expected generation of up to 30,000 tonnes of removal credits through 2026, available for presale. Mast pairs burial with restoration using native species grown from wild-collected seed in-house and manages two large nurseries, Silvaseed and Cal Forest, producing an average of 36 million seedlings annually. The MT1 project is designed as a geotechnically engineered, anoxic chamber protected under a 100-year easement, and Mast has submitted the project for a BeZero rating while pursuing registration and future verification with Puro.earth. Since 2020 Mast has specialized in carbon-financed reforestation across the U.S. and Canada and has restored thousands of acres in California, Montana, and Oregon. The company lists buyers such as Shopify and TIME CO2 and is using recent funding to scale its restorative reforestation and durable carbon removal efforts. DroneSeed’s core product is an automated drone system that delivers engineered seed packets and, when needed, applies treatments to accelerate forest recovery after wildfires. Its drones map terrain, select optimal planting sites, and deploy squirrel-resistant, nutrient-filled seed “pucks,” while collecting granular data for auditing and growth tracking. The company has expanded operational capability through FAA approvals for swarms and beyond-line-of-sight flight, and has grown its team to over 60 employees. To address nursery and seed shortages it acquired Silvaseed, a roughly 150-year-old seed supplier, and committed to expanding that seed-sorting and seedling-growing capacity. DroneSeed now grows millions of seedlings annually and says it is doubling capacity, positioning itself as a vertically integrated, one-stop reforestation provider. Financially, the company is pursuing carbon futures (“ex ante” credits) as a funding mechanism to accelerate projects and provide upfront capital for large-scale restoration. The recent funding round is intended to scale operations, expand nursery capacity, and support its integrated reforestation and carbon-finance model.

Participated · Series C · Sep 2021

Hungry operates a food-tech marketplace that sells business food solutions and hosts live and virtual experiences from local chefs and restaurants. The company was founded in 2017 by Eman Pahlavani, Shy Pahlevani and Jeff Grass and is based in Washington, DC. Hungry runs operations across numerous U.S. cities including Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New York, Los Angeles, Oakland, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and San Jose. The company recently acquired snacks brand NatureBox. Hungry is valued at $270m and says it will use new funding to drive continued growth and achieve full operational profitability. The product mix centers on marketplace transactions and experiential offerings from local food providers. Hungry is a technology-enabled marketplace that offers curated experiences to groups and businesses across the U.S. Its offerings include catering, chef pop-ups, snack packs, virtual cooking experiences, and food delivery services. The company operates in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Boston, New York City, Austin, Dallas and Los Angeles. Hungry closed a $21M Series C to fund expansion. Management intends to use the capital to accelerate geographic and service-based expansion, beginning with launches in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area in September. The company positions itself at the intersection of food service and experience-driven corporate offerings. HUNGRY operates a technology-enabled marketplace focused on the $60 billion business and events catering market, offering curated experiences for groups and companies across catering, chef pop-ups, snack packs, virtual cooking and delivery. The company emphasizes diversity, equity and inclusion across its staff and chef network, reporting approximately 73% more minority workers and 111% more minority managers than the average U.S. business; women make up 52% of staff and ~45% of its chef network, with minorities accounting for nearly 64% of that network. HUNGRY says it will leverage new capital from its recent investment to improve hiring and training practices so employees can develop skills and execute at a higher level. The company has donated more than half a million meals and runs Food Solutions programs to reduce waste. HUNGRY has received recognition on lists including Forbes' "America's Best Startup Employers of 2021," Fast Company's "Most Innovative Companies 2021," and Forward Fooding's "FoodTech 500." Founded in 2017, HUNGRY is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with operations in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Boston, New York City, Austin and Dallas. Hungry operates a marketplace that connects businesses with screened independent chefs who cook out of ghost kitchens and have food delivered by Hungry's team. The company has built a network of chefs in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Boston, New York and Atlanta and serves customers including Amazon, E-Trade, Microsoft and BCG. Hungry emphasizes a lower cost structure than restaurants while maintaining high-quality dishes produced by top chefs. The startup also runs a charitable program that donates one meal for every two sold and has donated nearly 500,000 meals to date. CEO Jeff Grass and co-founders Eman Pahlavani (COO) and Shy Pahlavani (president) launched the business after working together at their prior startup LiveSafe. The company plans to use new funding to expand into additional markets and aims to be in 23 cities by the end of 2021. Hungry operates a digital marketplace and logistics platform that enables independent chefs to sell cuisines directly to corporate customers and event clients, targeting the $25 billion business and events catering market. The platform features chefs including former White House chefs, Chopped champions, Food Network chefs, and celebrity personal chefs. The company plans to use the new funding to continue investing in its digital marketplace and logistics capabilities and to accelerate expansion into new U.S. markets. Founded in late 2016 by Eman Pahlevani and Shy Pahlevani and led by CEO Jeff Grass, Hungry currently operates in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia. The company has raised a total of $12.5M to date and intends to deploy capital to drive growth and market penetration.

Participated · Equity · Sep 2021

Moon provides infrastructure that lets e‑commerce sites accept crypto payments and funds merchant cards using bitcoin. The company is expanding product functionality to a web and mobile application and to allow funding cards from exchanges beyond Coinbase. It plans to enable payments with stablecoins in addition to bitcoin and to broaden its geographic reach outside the U.S. Moon intends to grow its team from seven to about 10–12 employees in the coming months. The startup is using new funding to accelerate partnerships and product expansion. Cards currently have U.S.-only usability constraints due to limited personal information collection.