Participated · Seed · Aug 2023

GroGuru supplies precision soil and irrigation monitoring and management systems to the commercial agriculture industry. Its solutions enable farmers to increase crop yields while using water, energy, fertilizer and labor more efficiently and sustainably. The product combines a patented wireless underground system (WUGS) for soil monitoring, an AI-based recommendation engine in the cloud, and an intuitive farmer-friendly interface accessible on tablet, computer or mobile device. The company is led by president and CEO Patrick Henry and has participated in accelerator programs including OCTANE LaunchPad, EvoNexus, AgLaunch, the Yield Lab, SVG-Thrive and Plug & Play AgTech. GroGuru closed a $2.3M Seed A financing to support expansion and commercialization. The company intends to use the funds to expand sales, continue development and commercialization of its AI-enabled continuous farm monitoring and management solutions, and grow strategic partnerships. GroGuru develops a patented wireless underground system (WUGS) that enables permanent installation of soil sensors in annual field crops, removing the need for annual installation and removal. The sensors feed data to the cloud, where GroGuru uses machine learning and other data to deliver recommendations on when and how much to irrigate. Its technology targets crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton and sorghum. The company says it will use the new capital to grow its team, scale operations and deploy critical sensor technologies connected to the cloud. Leadership includes president and CEO Patrick Henry and co‑founders CTO/VP engineering Farooq Anjum, PhD, and Chief Scientific Officer Jeff Campbell, PhD. GroGuru is a portfolio company at the EvoNexus technology incubator in Southern California. GroGuru develops irrigation automation technology and a precision soil and irrigation monitoring system for the agriculture industry. The company aims to improve on-farm efficiencies amid a severe labor shortage. It plans to advance its automation technology using proceeds from new funding. GroGuru secured $250,000 in seed funding from Western Growers and Radicle Growth. The financing was awarded as part of the Radicle Automation Challenge. GroGuru is part of the EvoNexus startup incubator, which operates locations in San Diego and Irvine, and is led by CEO Patrick Henry.

Participated · Equity · Apr 2014

Vapotherm develops and manufactures advanced, noninvasive respiratory care technologies, including its High Flow Therapy system. The company says its High Flow Therapy has treated over 700,000 patients. Vapotherm is based in Exeter, New Hampshire and is privately held. Management states the company focuses on improving clinical and economic outcomes for patients and customers. Vapotherm plans to expand its U.S. field organization, develop new products, and expand in select international markets. The recent financing is intended to fund those expansion and product development efforts. Vapotherm develops and manufactures advanced, noninvasive respiratory care technologies, including its High Flow Therapy system. The company is focused on improving clinical outcomes for patients with chronic and acute breathing disorders. Vapotherm is privately held and based in Exeter, New Hampshire. Management says the new capital will be used to continue building out a direct sales organization in the U.S. and to develop next-generation solutions. Over 700,000 patients have been treated with Vapotherm High Flow Therapy, indicating adoption at scale. The company closed a $20 million equity financing to support these growth plans. Vapotherm manufactures advanced, noninvasive respiratory care devices and high-flow therapy systems. The company is led by President & CEO Joe Army and focuses on respiratory support for patients with chronic or acute breathing disorders. Vapotherm has treated over 600,000 patients with its high flow therapy. It closed a $24M financing to support growth and improve healthcare for patients worldwide. In conjunction with the financing, a partner from the lead investor joined Vapotherm’s Board of Directors. The company intends to deploy the funds to expand and enhance its products and patient impact. Vapotherm manufactures advanced respiratory care devices and develops noninvasive technologies for supporting patients with chronic or acute breathing disorders. The company is led by founder Bill Niland and President & CEO Joe Army. It is based in Exeter, New Hampshire, and has an experienced board including James “Jim” Liken, a board member since April 2010 who will serve as Chairman. Vapotherm closed a $29M financing to support its operations. The company intends to use the proceeds from the financing to fund its growth plans. No operating metrics were disclosed in the article.

Participated · Equity · Dec 2012

Grockit began as a video test-prep service in 2006 and relaunched as a social learning company offering gamified, personalized and adaptive study tools. Its core product strategy has shifted to Learnist, a platform that lets teachers and learners post and curate educational content on digital “learn boards.” The company reports Learnist’s user base has grown 400% to hundreds of thousands of users, and session length has increased from about 10 minutes to over 20 minutes. Grockit is dedicating roughly 90% of its resources to Learnist and is positioning the product for both K–12 and lifelong/casual learners. Recent product work includes a redesigned Learnist website and iPhone/iPad app updates that let users create and add content. The company is leveraging partnerships to scale reach and distribution through media channels tied to its investors. Grockit builds online social learning services that connect students, teachers, and tutors to ask and answer educational questions. It began with test-prep for the SAT, GMAT, and LSAT and expanded into high school AP classes. Its latest product, Grockit Answers, generates Q&A pages for YouTube videos, chaptering videos by when questions are asked or answered and allowing the community to supply answers. Grockit has collected 3,700 educational videos on its YouTube channel, which founder Farb Nivi says is more than Khan Academy. Operational metrics reported include about 1 million registered users, roughly 25,000–50,000 monthly active users, more than 10 million answered questions, and nearly 100 million chat messages. The company notes many students use the service to prepare for a test and then move on. Grockit is an online learning community that applies game mechanics to help high school students prepare for standardized tests such as the GMAT and SAT. The company has integrated and correlated its content and tags to over 1,000 YouTube EDU videos to surface relevant video lessons alongside text-based material. Grockit blends text lessons with video learning to cover individual academic standards and GMAT prep areas. The startup, which launched at TechCrunch50 in 2008, recently raised $7 million in funding. It is moving into general online education for high school and middle school students with the impending launch of Grockit Academy, an online destination where students can learn together and teach each other. The article notes YouTube EDU has grown to more than 65,000 videos and suggests Grockit could also source videos from Academic Earth. Grockit is developing a MMOLG (Massively Multi Player Online Learning Game) that lets people connect to learn from each other. The company has been operating in stealth and hopes to release its product this fall. Grockit originally launched in November 2006 as an online exam‑prep service competing with Kaplan and The Princeton Review, then pivoted in July 2007 to the current MMOLG plan. Founders Farbood Nivi and Michael Buffington bring exam‑prep teaching experience and Rails development expertise, respectively. Financially, Grockit has raised a total of $10.7M, including a recent $8M Series B, while the product remains unreleased. Grockit began by offering low-cost GMAT preparation classes delivered over Webex. The company has changed its model and is now building a new product called MMOL (Massive Multiplayer Online Learning) intended to leverage peer-to-peer learning rather than traditional teacher-student formats. Founder Farbood Nivi and technical co-founder Michael Buffington lead the company. Grockit says studies show people learn best from each other and plans to test that hypothesis with the new product, though it is not divulging product details. The company is based in San Francisco and has secured outside funding to support the shift. Financially, Grockit closed a $2.7 million financing to fund product development and expansion of its new approach.

Participated · Series D · Mar 2011

Tabula is a fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, led by CEO Dennis Segers. The company has rolled out the ABAX family of 3D Programmable Logic Devices (3PLDs), which use its patented Spacetime architecture and are supported by Stylus development software. Tabula's core products are the ABAX 3PLDs and the associated development tools. The company plans to use newly raised funds to accelerate production of the ABAX product family, expand customer and partner support infrastructures, and develop new products. Financially, Tabula secured $108M in a Series D funding round to support those initiatives.

Participated · Series E · Jan 2011

Stoke delivers gateway solutions that enable mobile operators to manage traffic growth and increase the efficiency, reliability, and scope of mobile data services. The company is led by President and CEO Vikash Varma and is based in Santa Clara, CA. Stoke received a US$5M strategic investment from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation to support its growth in the worldwide LTE market. The article identifies the investment as strategic but does not specify instrument details beyond that. Stoke is backed by venture capital firms and carriers including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital, Focus Ventures, and NTT Docomo. No revenue, user metrics, or prior round financial amounts are disclosed in the article. Stoke, founded in 2004 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California, designs and manufactures systems and hardware for mobile communications infrastructure. Its products support 3G, 4G and Wi‑Fi carrier networks and are designed to improve speeds and make networks more secure. The company’s hardware targets bandwidth efficiency as carriers face rapid growth in connected mobile devices and mobile data traffic. Keating Capital noted industry demand for 4G/LTE and Wi‑Fi over the next 5–10 years and said Stoke is well positioned to take advantage of that growth. Financially, the most recent transaction was a $3.5 million secondary purchase of common shares by Keating Capital from certain Stoke employees; Stoke did not issue new securities or receive new capital. Keating was the sole investor in the transaction and joins existing preferred-stock holders Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital and Docomo Capital as investors in Stoke. Stoke builds mobile broadband infrastructure solutions that provide 3G and LTE capabilities and help network operators transition to 4G. Its products are designed to reduce information overload on carrier networks by improving scalability, flexibility, and cost. The company cites strong demand driven by rapid smartphone adoption and forecasts of massive growth in connected devices. Stoke closed 2010 with revenues four times those of 2009 and was expecting triple‑digit growth in the following year. It plans to use the new funding to double its size in 2011. Total funding to date is $92 million. Stoke builds hardware that provides mobile carriers the technology to let phones access different wireless networks including 3G, GSM, CDMA, Wi‑Fi and WiMax. Its systems converge wireless coverage and let phones seamlessly detect different networks and automatically switch based on location and availability. The product targets carriers facing massive increases in mobile data traffic from applications, video, and music. Stoke says the new funds will be used to support continuing partnerships with mobile carriers. Financially, the company has raised $15M in a Series D, bringing total funding to $65M. Prior rounds include a $20M Series C in 2007, a $19.8M Series B in 2005, and a $10M Series A.