Participated · Series A · Aug 2024

Intramotev develops autonomous, zero-emission battery-electric railcars (TugVolt and Revolt) designed to move freight without traditional locomotives. Its self-propelled TugVolt units can operate independently in captive, point-to-point use cases and be rapidly expanded across the existing 140,000 miles of U.S. track without additional infrastructure. The company aims to decarbonize and improve asset utilization in the freight supply chain that moves about $690B worth of goods by rail annually in the U.S. Intramotev plans to continue deploying its technology to customers across the U.S. and abroad. The company was founded in 2020 in St. Louis, MO, by Tim Luchini, PhD, Corey Vasel, and Alex Peiffer. It recently closed a $14M Series A to support those deployment plans. Intramotev is developing autonomous, zero-emission rail vehicles and rail-autonomy software aimed at transforming freight movement. The company is building a commercial demonstration vehicle and proprietary autonomy software to reduce reliance on diesel locomotives and improve asset utilization. Its technology targets traditional freight rail as well as applications in mining, ports, and intermodal freight movement. Intramotev says its solutions will help decarbonize the supply chain and address capacity constraints in existing freight infrastructure. Founded in 2020 in Saint Louis, MO, by Tim Luchini, Corey Vasel, and Alex Peiffer, the company emphasizes reducing diesel use for the roughly $690B of goods moved by rail annually in the U.S. Idealab NY incubated Intramotev and the company cites potential to lessen the roughly 37 million metric tons of greenhouse gases locomotives emit annually.

Participated · Seed · Mar 2021

Cheese offers a digital banking platform and Debit Mastercard aimed at Asian-Americans and immigrants, including customers with no credit history. The product provides instant virtual cards, advance pay up to two days early with direct deposit, a $5 signup bonus, a 0.3% APY, and up to 10% cash back at over 10,000 merchants. Accounts are FDIC insured through Coastal Community Bank and include Mastercard Zero Liability, identity-theft protection, multi-factor authentication, and 256-bit encryption. Cheese pairs banking with a social-impact program, pledging $100,000 to the Cheese Giveback Fund and committing donations tied to signups and purchases; initial nonprofit grants and efforts will focus on San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City with plans to expand to other cities. The company has named actor and advocate Jimmy Wong as Chief Community Ambassador to drive community outreach and partnerships. To date Cheese has raised seed funding and is positioning its product around accessibility, security, rewards, and community support.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2016

Oben builds technology that converts a 2D photo plus a simple voice recording into a realistic 3D virtual head or avatar for VR and AR environments. The company emphasizes translating a user's character, personality, and individuality into realistic avatars rather than cartoon-like representations. Oben plans to launch its virtual self product in Q1 2017 and says the funds will be used for rapid product development, hiring more scientists, and identifying new partnerships. It positions its avatars to enable more social and shared experiences in VR, including personalized music and entertainment. Oben is a portfolio company of the HTC Vive X accelerator and was selected for the program in July 2016. The company was founded in 2014, is based in Pasadena, CA, and has about 20 employees. Prior to this raise, Oben had previously raised $150,000.

Participated · Seed · Sep 2016

codeSpark develops visual, no-words web and mobile games (notably The Foos Coding) designed to teach coding to kids aged 4–9, including those who cannot yet read. Its approach emphasizes accessibility and gender-equitable characters and storylines to engage boys and girls equally. The Foos has been played by 4 million kids across 201 countries, and children have created 7 million games using Foos Studio. The company makes its games free to public schools, libraries and nonprofits while offering paid downloads for individual users and a new premium subscription, codeSpark Academy, on iOS and Android. codeSpark plans to use its seed funding to develop new curriculum, expand its international user base, and run third-party efficacy studies with academic researchers. Down the line the team is considering curriculum beyond coding basics, including entrepreneurship content.

Led · Equity · May 2015

Quick.ly is a stealth mobile search startup backed by incubator Idealab. The company says it is "reinventing search for mobile to get people to what they’re looking for more quickly." A public filing shows Quick.ly has raised at least $5.1 million, though the filing did not disclose the funding sources. A report from Rappler says Manila-based Xurpas invested $1 million, which implied a roughly $22 million valuation. The filing lists Clearstone Venture Partners’ James Armstrong as a director. Idealab declined to provide further details about the round.