Participated · Series C · May 2022

Caribou (formerly MotoRefi) is an auto fintech that enables people to take control of their car payments by partnering with lenders such as credit unions and community banks. Its core product is an auto refinance platform, and it recently launched a digital car insurance marketplace to help customers discover additional savings. The company says it helps customers secure cheaper rates and lower monthly payments. Caribou was incubated by QED Investors, was founded in 2016, and is based in Washington, DC and Denver, CO. Financially, the company has raised more than $190 million to date and was valued at $1.1 billion after the Series C. Management intends to use the new funds to invest in the platform, develop innovative new products, and expand the team to continue its growth trajectory. MotoRefi operates a platform that lets users refinance auto loans via partnerships with credit unions, community banks and other trusted lenders. The company works with credit union partners such as GreenState Credit Union to expand access to borrowers and grow membership for those institutions. Led by CEO Kevin Bennett and incubated by QED Investors, MotoRefi has attracted institutional backers including Goldman Sachs Asset Management Growth Equity, IA Capital, Moderne Ventures, Accomplice, Link Ventures, Motley Fool, CMFG Ventures, Gaingels, FireBolt Ventures and others. In May the company announced a $45m Series B and this additional investment raised the round total to $50m. The latest $5m investment from Curql Fund enables MotoRefi to become a Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO). The funding supports the company's core effort to scale partnerships with credit unions and serve communities at scale. MotoRefi is an Arlington, VA-based auto fintech that helps customers refinance auto loans through partnerships with credit unions and community banks to lower rates and monthly payments. Led by CEO Kevin Bennett, the company operates a platform that connects borrowers with lenders to streamline refinancing. Founded in 2016, MotoRefi has raised more than $60M since inception. The company raised $45M in a Series B led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s Growth Equity team. MotoRefi intends to use the funds to invest in its platform and continue to expand the team. In conjunction with the funding, Jade Mandel of Goldman Sachs will join MotoRefi’s board. MotoRefi offers an auto-refinancing platform that connects vehicle owners with lenders such as credit unions and community banks to obtain lower rates and monthly payments. The company is led by CEO Kevin Bennett and was incubated by QED Investors. It has attracted backing from investors including Accomplice, Link Ventures, Motley Fool, CMFG Ventures (part of CUNA Mutual Group), Gaingels, and FireBolt Ventures. MotoRefi raised capital to continue expanding operations, broaden its business reach and advance development efforts. The company is based in Arlington, VA and will deploy the new funds toward growth initiatives. MotoRefi provides an end-to-end auto refinancing platform that finds better rates, pays off the old lender and handles vehicle re-titling. Born out of QED Investors in 2017, the company says its platform can save customers an average of $100 per month on car payments. MotoRefi has launched pilot programs with Progressive and Chime to offer refinance options directly to their customers, and it also works with affiliate programs such as Credit Karma. The startup is scaling by adding new lenders and partners while investing in its technology platform and hiring additional staff. Financially, MotoRefi announced an $8.6 million Series A following a $4.7 million seed round in March 2019.

Led · Series B · Nov 2014

Encoding.com is a cloud-based video encoding and processing provider founded in 2008. The company offers cloud video encoding services to media companies and online video distributors. Encoding.com has run lean and has been careful not to raise excessive capital. It currently has about 50 employees and expects to double headcount over the next year. New funding will be used to ramp up sales and engineering and to expand internationally. The company is exploring tighter integrations and potential hybrid SaaS offerings with larger video-processing vendors. Encoding.com provides cloud-based encoding services focused on ultra-high-quality, long-form video content such as movies and TV shows. The company built and launched an EDC Private Cloud to speed uploads and processing for large mezzanine files, investing in its own hardware to handle premium content. It has spent more than $1 million building private-cloud infrastructure in a data center in Oakland and pairs that with public-cloud bursting to create multiple renditions for adaptive streaming. Encoding.com has struck partnerships with Aspera, Dolby, and Google’s Widevine to accelerate transfers and ensure output quality and security. The EDC Private Cloud has run in beta with studio partners and is intended to win larger Hollywood and TV network customers. The company doubled revenue over the prior year and says it expects to triple revenue in 2012. Encoding.com is a San Francisco, CA–based provider of a SaaS video encoding service. It enables publishers and developers to accelerate processing, reduce errors and optimize video for any web and mobile format, eliminating expensive video infrastructure investments. The company serves roughly 1,700 customers across media and entertainment, eLearning, retail, telecommunications, lifestyle and advertising worldwide. Led by president Jeff Malkin, Encoding.com targets publishers and developers with its cloud encoding platform. The company raised $2m from existing investors and intends to use the funds to expand its operations. In February 2010 Encoding.com completed a $1.25m Series A round. Encoding.com offers a cloud-based SaaS platform to host and encode user-generated and premium video. Launched in September 2008, the company encodes an average of 30,000 videos per day and has processed more than four million videos since launch. Its customers include media and technology companies such as MTV Networks, WebMD, Nokia and MySpace. The company raised $1.25 million in a Series A led by Metamorphic Ventures with participation from angel investors Patrick Condon, Fred Hamilton, Zelkova Ventures, Dave Morgan and Allen Morgan. The funds will be used to expand sales, marketing and partnership programs.