Led · Series G · Aug 2021

Hopper is a mobile-first travel booking app that began with web‑crawling and flight‑price prediction technology and now sells flights, hotels, homes and rental cars. The company offers differentiated features such as airfare price freezes, “cancel for any reason” and flight disruption guarantees; Hopper says price freezes represent about 40% of its app revenue. Hopper has expanded into B2B with Hopper Cloud, a white‑label program now comprising more than 40% of its business, and it powers products like Capital One Travel and the Premier Collection. The company is pushing social commerce (referrals, share‑to‑earn, team buying and daily gift) and says international sales rose from under 3% to over 20% of sales. Hopper reports more than 80 million downloads, expects platform sales to exceed $4.5 billion this year, employs about 1,500 people, and claims roughly 11.2% of the U.S. third‑party air travel market. Management has said the company plans to eventually go public; Hopper was last reported at a $5 billion valuation earlier this year. Hopper started as an app-focused air and hotel booking platform and has expanded into vacation rentals and fintech-style insurance products. It enables consumers to freeze airfare or hotel prices for a fee and distributes these services through partners such as Kayak, Capital One, MakeMyTrip, and Trip.com Group. The company says more than 70% of its airfare revenue now comes from those fintech services, and it reports North American flight market share in December was 300% higher than pre-pandemic. Hopper has about 2 million vacation rentals on its platform via partnerships and is hiring developers to transition from app-only to desktop. Management says it is building out Hopper Cloud and iterating fintech capabilities, and plans a cancel-for-any-reason feature that has not yet launched. The company is funneling profits back into marketing to accelerate growth. Hopper operates an AI-powered travel booking platform and fintech suite that offers protections against pricing fluctuations, no-hassle rebooking and cross-airline rebooking for missed connections. Its fintech products include Cancel for Any Reason, Change for Any Reason and a Rebooking Guarantee. The company says revenue is on track to surge 330% year-over-year and is already up 100% versus its last pre-pandemic quarter. Hopper has raised nearly $600M to date and recently closed a new $175M Series G. The company will use proceeds to scale customer support (it has already grown the team 200% and deployed automation resolving 60% of inbound requests) and plans to hire 500 people, including 300 in customer service. It is pursuing acqui-hires focused on travel, data science and engineering, plans to add home rentals to its product set, and aims to expand into Europe and Asia. Hopper is also white-labeling booking products through Hopper Cloud and partnering with Capital One and Amadeus to distribute its fintech booking tools. Hopper is a mobile-only travel booking app that uses artificial intelligence to help users search for and book hotels and flights directly in-app as an OTA, earning commissions on bookings. The company builds user profiles and lookalike models to recommend trips, and reports that 25% of its bookings are driven by AI-generated suggestions with conversion rates 2.6x higher than explicit searches. Hopper has passed 30 million installs and 75 million trips planned, and says it’s on track for nearly $1 billion in sales this year. The company is not currently profitable, reinvesting returns to fuel growth. Hopper plans to use the new funding to further develop its AI algorithms and expand deeper into international markets, having recently added 47 low-cost carriers in Europe and boosted regional sales by 154% year-over-year. While it may consider alternate accommodations later, its immediate focus is scaling hotel supply and its mobile product. Hopper is a mobile-only airfare price-prediction and booking app whose forecasting software claims up to 95% accuracy a year in advance. The app combines price-forecast models with push notifications to convert users into buyers. Downloads grew from 1 million to over 10 million in a year, with more than 1 million installs per month and 18 million trips tracked. Hopper says sales grew 23x year-over-year and it is selling roughly $1 million in flights per day. The app sends over 20 million notifications monthly and reports that 90% of bookings come from those alerts. Hopper plans to continue international expansion (currently selling tickets in 126 countries) and to grow headcount from 40 to 120 employees in Montreal and Cambridge by the end of next year.

Participated · Equity · Jul 2020

Pharmapacks provides a proprietary technology platform that delivers logistics, fulfillment, marketing and sales services to brands selling on marketplaces such as Amazon, Walmart, Google, eBay and Facebook. The platform is designed to enable brands to focus on product research and development while Pharmapacks handles marketplace operations. The company is led by CEO Andrew Vagenas and employs 850 people. Pharmapacks operates as both an ecommerce enablement provider and a retail seller for brands. The article does not disclose revenue or other financial metrics beyond recent financings. Pharmapacks operates a proprietary e-commerce technology platform that provides logistics, fulfillment, marketing and sales solutions for brands on marketplaces such as Amazon, Walmart, Google, eBay and Facebook. The company serves as a launch pad for emerging and lesser-known brands by providing access to its platform and consumer base while brands focus on product R&D. Led by CEO Andrew Vagenas, Pharmapacks employs a team of eCommerce experts with over 10 years' experience and ~850 employees. The company reached over $250M in sales in 2019 and was on a run rate to achieve more than 70% year-over-year growth, with an expectation of 100% year-over-year growth in Q4 after opening a 230k sq ft replenishment center in late Q3. Pharmapacks intends to use the financing to accelerate its expansion plans. Pharmapacks operates a proprietary e-commerce technology platform that helps brands reach consumers through logistics, fulfillment, marketing and sales. The company sells direct-to-consumer via Pharmapacks.com and through online marketplaces including Amazon, Walmart.com and eBay. It runs a 140,000 square foot warehouse in Islandia, New York, maintains an in-house technology team building automated assistance tools, and partners with Sealed Air on the I-Pack® system. Pharmapacks’ catalog comprises 28,000 unique items and the business processes and ships over 30,000 orders per day to all 50 U.S. states and Canada. The company employs about 350 people and plans to grow that headcount by 20 percent, scale its warehouse, advance automation and expand inventory and delivery reach into Europe, Asia and beyond.

Led · Series G · May 2020

Couchbase offers an enterprise-grade NoSQL database platform delivered as a self-managed server, a mobile platform (Couchbase Mobile), and a fully managed Couchbase Cloud DBaaS. The company has emphasized cloud-native capabilities and Kubernetes support (including an Autonomous Operator for Kubernetes 2.0) and allows customers to run the managed service within their own VPC on public clouds like AWS and Azure. Couchbase says 30% of the Fortune 100 use its database and reported strong commercial momentum: 70% total contract value growth, more than 50% new business growth, and over 35% growth in average subscription deal size over the last fiscal year. The company is currently seeing almost $100 million in committed annual recurring revenue. Product plans include continued feature development across the NoSQL server, mobile platform, and Couchbase Cloud. Couchbase also plans geographic expansion to better serve global customer operations. Couchbase delivers a NoSQL operational database platform for the digital economy used to build enterprise web, mobile, and IoT applications. The platform includes Couchbase, Couchbase Lite (the article describes it as the first mobile NoSQL database) and Couchbase Sync Gateway; all products are open source. The company emphasizes data-model flexibility, elastic scalability, high performance and 24x365 availability with configurable cross–data-center replication. Customers cited in the article include AT&T, Walmart, Dixons, Nike and many other large enterprises. In 2015 Couchbase nearly doubled sales and reported enterprise renewal rates above 90 percent. The company plans to deploy new capital to accelerate sales, expand technical support and enhance engineering to extend its market leadership. Couchbase builds Couchbase Server and Couchbase Mobile (including Couchbase Sync Gateway and Couchbase Lite), a NoSQL platform that combines key-value simplicity, document flexibility and in-memory read performance. The product emphasizes scale and performance for enterprise operational data management and mobile edge computing. Couchbase markets an end-to-end operational big data solution that supports cloud and device-local storage and sync for mobile applications. The company reports rapid commercial traction: sales grew 400% over the past year, it doubled headcount, added eight offices and signed large enterprise deals. Couchbase plans to use the new financing to fund product investment, expand regional technical support, and scale marketing and sales — including targeted APAC growth supported by investor WestSummit. The company’s software is open source and it highlights many large-brand customers across industries. Couchbase raised a $25M Series D to build new enterprise features and expand primarily into India, China and South America. The round was led by Adams Street Partners and joined by Accel Partners, Mayfield Fund, North Bridge Venture Partners and Ignition Partners, bringing total funding to $56M to date. Couchbase is an independent open-source project influenced by Apache CouchDB and memcached and is offered in community and enterprise editions. Recent releases added cross‑data‑center replication and new security features. The company emphasizes minimal latency and throughput by embedding memcached and combining caching and database layers into one. CEO Bob Wiederhold said the technology avoids locking (unlike MongoDB), scales on a peer‑to‑peer network, and offers automated setup compared with Cassandra and MongoDB. Couchbase is a NoSQL database company created earlier this year through the merger of CouchOne and Membase. It provides database solutions for building web and mobile applications and recently released Couchbase Server 2.0, a distributed, document‑oriented DBMS and the company’s first integrated product after the merger. The company’s product focus is on delivering NoSQL database technologies for distributed applications. Couchbase said it will use new funding to accelerate product delivery, grow in the enterprise market, and expand internationally. The Series C round totaled $14 million, and the company also reserved an additional $1 million for investment from strategic customers and partners. The financing brings Couchbase’s total capital raised to $30 million.

Led · Equity · Sep 2019

Postmates is a popular on-demand food delivery service that facilitates restaurant and consumer food deliveries. The company has been pursuing autonomous robotic delivery ambitions while competing in a crowded food-delivery market. Postmates recently raised $225 million at a $2.4 billion valuation, bringing its total funding to nearly $1 billion. It has privately filed for an IPO with the SEC and tapped JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America to lead the offering. The article notes the motives for the last-minute financing were unclear but that the capital ensures Postmates has runway to accelerate growth ahead of the public listing. Postmates was founded in 2011 and is backed by investors including Spark Capital, Founders Fund, Uncork Capital, Slow Ventures, Tiger Global, and BlackRock. Postmates operates an on-demand food delivery marketplace that completes roughly 5 million deliveries per month and serves customers in more than 550 cities. The company recently expanded into another 100 markets, reaching an additional 50 million potential customers. Postmates has begun preparing for an initial public offering and has tapped JPMorgan to advise on a possible float. Reportedly the company expected to record $400 million in 2018 revenue on food sales of $1.2 billion, though Postmates has not confirmed those figures. The business has raised significant venture capital to date—totaling $681 million—and is led by co-founder and CEO Bastian Lehmann. Competition in the market includes larger entrants such as Uber Eats and heavily funded rivals like DoorDash. Postmates operates an on-demand delivery network serving retail and restaurants, recently expanding into more than 100 new cities and now available in 400+ U.S. cities as well as Mexico City. The company says it completes “millions” of deliveries every month and is profitable in 90% of its markets. Over the past four years Postmates reports gross margins have improved dramatically to nearly 50%. It has announced partnerships with companies including Instacart and Walmart. Management says the new investment will accelerate its ability to pair technology with the vitality of neighborhoods and support continued retail distribution growth. Postmates operates an on-demand delivery platform that earns revenue from delivery fees, merchant placements, and subscriptions like Postmates Plus Unlimited. A TechCrunch-obtained pitch deck reportedly showed accelerating revenue and healthy gross margins, driven in part by about 6,000 merchants paying for better placement and participation in paid programs. The company has integrated its API with large partners such as Apple and Starbucks, creating additional monetization channels. Postmates is completing over 1.5 million deliveries per month and company leadership said it could hit profitability as soon as next year if it chooses to do so. The new capital is intended primarily to improve engineering and expand into new markets, with particular focus on growing the Unlimited subscription product to compete with services like Amazon Prime. Management also said an IPO is an option they have in mind, likely at least two years out. Postmates operates an urban logistics and on-demand delivery platform that connects customers with local couriers who purchase and deliver goods from any restaurant or store in a city. Led by co-founder and CEO Bastian Lehmann, the company operates across 28 markets and recently surpassed 2.5 million deliveries. It partners with companies such as Apple, Starbucks and Chipotle. The company intends to use new funding to accelerate geographic expansion, grow key teams and explore categories beyond food. Postmates recently secured $80M in funding to support those plans, and a Tiger Global partner joined its board.

Led · Equity · Jul 2018

LegalZoom operates an online legal filing service focused on small businesses and families. The company provides digital legal document preparation and filing services. In October 2018 LegalZoom named David Yuan, a General Partner at Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), to its board of directors. The board appointment was made as part of an investment by TCV. The article states that details of TCV's investment were not announced. No revenue, user, or other financial metrics were disclosed in the article. LegalZoom is the leading provider of online legal solutions for small businesses and families. The company operates a technology-enabled platform combining self-service and attorney-supported services to help customers form businesses, manage legal needs, and protect personal matters. LegalZoom is expanding its product offerings, launching new services, entering new channels and territories, and has expanded into the United Kingdom. Management says the business has healthy profitability and accelerating revenue growth, and revenue has doubled since Permira's 2014 investment. Subscriptions now account for more than 50% of U.S. revenue and the company has over 1,200 employees. LegalZoom reports more than ten times greater brand awareness than online or offline competitors. LegalZoom provides online legal documents, legal plans and access to attorneys for families and small businesses and has helped over two million Americans. Founded 14 years ago, the company has offices in Austin, TX; Glendale and Mountain View, CA; and London, UK. LegalZoom historically funded growth from a $1 million angel round and internal operating cash flow, and in February 2014 a Permira funds investment of more than $200 million made Permira its largest shareholder. The company is expanding product offerings and geographic reach in the U.S. and abroad. The business sought external financing to support a stock purchase, a dividend payment and continued growth initiatives. LegalZoom provides an online platform for customers to draft and file common legal documents, aiming to democratize access to basic legal services. The company’s offerings include tools for wills, business incorporation, trademark filings and real estate leases. LegalZoom has attracted significant marketing investment, including television advertising, to broaden its customer base. The company is profitable and reports north of $100 million in revenue, and it has helped nearly 2 million customers create legal documents. Founders include Brian Lee, Eddie Hartman, and Brian Liu, and John Suh serves as CEO. Management says an IPO is on the horizon but the company is in no rush to go public.