Participated · Series C · Aug 2020

PayActiv is a San Jose-based employer-sponsored earned wage access and holistic financial wellness platform delivered via a mobile app. Led by CEO and co-founder Safwan Shah, the certified B Corp and Public Benefit Company provides multiple ways for users to access earned wages — direct cash pickup, a PayActiv prepaid card, instant Visa or Mastercard debit load, ACH payments, bill payments, Amazon purchases, and Uber rides. It also offers AI- and machine learning-backed financial wellness and planning tools to help users save, budget, and manage money. The company serves more than 4 million employees at over 1,000 businesses across retail, food services, business processing services, and over 400 senior living and healthcare businesses; clients include Walmart, Wayfair and Ibex Global. PayActiv secured $100M in Series C financing and has structured an expandable variable funding facility with Security Benefit. The company says the combination of growth equity and the VF Facility will enable expansion of its customer base and support current clients with financial wellness benefits to improve employee engagement and retention. PayActiv offers a mobile, employer-delivered financial wellness platform that provides earned‑wage access, bill pay, budgeting and savings tools, discounts, and financial counseling and education. The company reports settling more than $100 million in earned wage access transactions each month and estimates employees avoid about $10 million per month in overdraft, late fees and interest charges. PayActiv says it has grown six-fold in the past year and has signed distribution agreements such as with Walmart (covering 1.4 million associates) and an ADP agreement that opens services to more than 600,000 businesses. Founded in 2012 and based in San Jose, the company positions itself as an alternative to payday loans, overdrafts and other high‑cost short‑term credit. PayActiv plans to use new capital to expand its platform, accelerate growth and develop additional high‑impact solutions for financially stressed workers. The company emphasizes employer ROI through improved retention, productivity and recruitment as part of its value proposition. PayActiv is a Silicon Valley–headquartered financial-technology company and certified B Corp that offers employer-delivered financial wellness services through its cloud-based MyMoNow solution. MyMoNow lets employees access earned-but-unpaid wages (up to $500) instantly and includes free bill pay, bank transfer, budgeting, and savings tools. The solution is delivered as an employer membership benefit, requires no credit checks, can typically be live within one to two days, and imposes no out-of-pocket cost or cash-flow risk on employers. PayActiv positions its product as an alternative to payday and other high-cost small-dollar lending, aiming to reduce financial stress and improve productivity, retention, and related employer costs. Following strong growth in 2015, the company has secured $9.2 million in financing to expand and enhance its suite of turnkey employment-based financial wellness offerings. Founded by Safwan Shah, PayActiv emphasizes serving lower-income workers and measuring employer benefits through reduced absenteeism and improved employee satisfaction.

Participated · Equity · Jun 2012

Donuts Inc. is a global leader in top-level domains that promotes and enhances digital identity. Led by CEO Bruce Jaffe, the company offers 238 high-quality TLDs including .email, .guru, .social, .business, .life and .restaurant. Donuts has offices in Kirkland, Denver, Washington, DC, Dublin and Beijing. The company has invested in Netki and Geofrenzy and acquired the Rightside Group to expand its portfolio and complementary technologies. Donuts says it is leveraging industry expertise to identify and invest in emerging technologies that enhance the domain name system (DNS) and complement its business and growth strategy. Its recent financing activity supports corporate purposes and strategic transactions such as the Rightside merger. Donuts operates as a registry pursuing new gTLDs being introduced by ICANN, having applied for 307 strings. The company raised a Series A of more than $100 million last June and has now completed a Series B that it says doubles its available capital. The Series B amount was not disclosed publicly but is described as being in the “tens of millions” and was oversubscribed. The new financing includes additional funding from Columbia Partners Private Capital and complements an existing senior line from Comerica Bank. Donuts says the capital is earmarked to participate in auctions and otherwise acquire contested gTLDs in the coming months. Donuts sells TLDs to registrars (for example GoDaddy) rather than directly to consumers and plans to partner with Demand Media as its registry services provider. Donuts is launching as a registry for new top-level domain names and has filed 307 applications with ICANN to expand the Internet namespace. The company plans to wholesale its new gTLDs to popular registrars like GoDaddy and Hover rather than sell directly to end users. Donuts has partnered with Demand Media to provide registry services and says it will not apply for trademarked/branded strings. The company has raised over $100 million in capital from private equity and venture funds and has a revolving credit facility with Comerica Bank to help secure and operate applied-for domains. Donuts is Washington-based, led by industry veterans (including CFO Kevin Wilson, the former CFO of ICANN), and plans to grow its team as it pursues what it calls a billion-dollar-plus market. Donuts is operating in stealth mode and has disclosed few public details about its product or market. The company is led by Paul Stahura, who previously founded domain registrar eNom and served in executive roles at Demand Media. An SEC filing shows Donuts has raised $1 million in equity financing; the filing also lists a possible offering amount of $80 million, a figure Stahura disputes. Donuts was created on January 4th of this year according to Washington state corporate records and is described as a Seattle-area company. Directors named in the filing include Robert Verratti and Chris Pacitti. Executives listed include Richard Tindal, Jonathon Nevett, and Daniel Schindler. Aside from the SEC filing and leadership roster, the company has not publicly disclosed its product, customers, or additional financial metrics.

Participated · Equity · May 2006

Demand Media is a next-generation web media company that combines domain services, brand-able domains and niche content web sites. The company says it has taken a unique approach by combining these elements to form a new media company. Demand plans to use the new capital to further increase organic and strategic growth and to rapidly seize on unique market opportunities. The company completed a $100 million second round of funding co-led by 3i and Oak Investment Partners, with participation from Spectrum Equity Investors. The securities were issued to a limited number of accredited investors in a private placement exempt from registration under the Securities Act of 1933. Demand Media is based in Santa Monica, California. Demand Media is a Santa Monica-based online publisher. It entered into a new $225M credit facility split between a $125M revolving credit facility and a $100M term loan. The new facility replaces an existing $105M revolving credit facility and includes an option to increase the amount to $250M. Lenders on the facility are Silicon Valley Bank, U.S. Bank, Fifth Third Bank, Comerica Bank, Citibank, Union Bank, OneWest Bank and Goldman Sachs Bank. Demand Media said it will use the funding to gain additional flexibility and liquidity to pursue strategic objectives, including a spin-off of its domain services businesses. Demand Media is a Los Angeles-based online media firm run by Richard Rosenblatt. PEHub reported the company has raised an additional $35M. The firm filed a regulatory filing with the SEC on March 13. A Demand Media spokesperson did not respond to inquiries seeking confirmation or details of the round. If the report is accurate, the round would bring the firm's total capital raised to over $355M. Investors in prior and current rounds include 3i Ventures, Generation Partners, Goldman Sachs, Oak Investment Partners, and Spectrum Equity Investors. Demand Media is based in Santa Monica, California, and was founded by Richard Rosenblatt, the former president of Intermix Media. According to Mashable as quoted in the article, the company buys domain names with organic traffic, adds social networking features, and owns registrars eNom and BulkRegister. The company completed a third round of funding worth $100 million from Goldman Sachs. Previous investors include 3i Group, Generation Partners, Oak Investment Partners, and Spectrum Equity Partners; Demand Media has raised a total of $320 million to date. The article does not specify how the company will use the new proceeds or provide additional operating metrics or plans. Demand Media, formed by former MySpace chairman Richard Rosenblatt, is building a portfolio of generic websites that largely lack staff‑generated content. The sites are designed to attract visitors and monetize traffic via online advertising provided by partners such as Yahoo and Google. The company is buying cheap content feeds and expects to rely in part on user‑generated contributions to populate the sites. One example cited is flashgames.com, which reportedly earns more than $150,000 a year selling online ads despite offering only links to other game sites. Demand Media has raised $120 million in financing from Spectrum Equity Partners, Oak Investment Partners and Generation Partners. According to the company website update, Demand Media is based in Los Angeles with offices in Seattle.