Participated · Series B · Feb 2023

Smile Identity offers a suite of identity-verification products including face verification, liveness checks, document verification, digital KYC, onboarding, anti-fraud checks and identity-data deduplication. The company launched in 2018 and was founded by Mark Straub and William Bares. It has expanded product coverage from ~250 million identities to capabilities the company says can cover over a billion identities and 230 ID types across 100+ countries via its Document Verification product. Smile Identity processed over 30 million identity verifications in 2021 (about half of its ~50 million total checks since inception) and performs roughly 2–2.5 million monthly checks; it serves over 100 businesses across banking, fintech, education, agriculture and e-commerce. The firm says it doubled its client base since 2021 and tripled revenues over the same period. Growth plans include ramping hiring across East, Southern and West Africa, expanding into Francophone and Arab-speaking countries, opening offices (including London and Cape Town) and partnering with ID authorities and governments to support consent standards and data-protection compliance. Smile Identity builds ID verification and KYC compliance tools tailored to African identities using de-biased face recognition, liveness checks and anti-fraud measures. Founded in 2017 by Mark Straub and William Bares, the company matches selfies against identity documents and photos held by ID authorities. It covers more than 250 million identities, supports over 15 ID types, performs over one million identity checks per month and serves about 80 customers charged on a per-query basis. Customers span banking, fintech, ride-sharing, worker verification, public social welfare programs and telecommunications, including Paystack, Paga, Chipper Cash, Kuda, Umba, Stanbic IBTC, Binance, Luno and Paxful. Smile Identity plans to use new funding to improve its services, expand into more markets, add support for additional ID types, and hire more engineers and support staff across Africa. The company is also building compliance templates and product features to help clients meet evolving local data-protection and consent requirements.

Participated · Seed · Jun 2021

Aiden Technologies provides software packaging, deployment, and IT automation for Microsoft Windows environments. Led by CEO Josh Aaron, the company pairs Microsoft Modern Management expertise with an AI bot to automate smart packaging and software distribution. Its platform ensures computers receive the exact software required, keeps machines up to date, reduces security risks, and improves end-user digital experience. Customers include large asset managers in the private equity industry, hedge funds, law firms, and other enterprise Windows users. Aiden completed a $4.5M Seed funding round and intends to use the proceeds to expand operations and broaden its business reach. The company emphasizes automation and AI to reduce manual work and security exposure in Windows environments. Aiden Technologies offers an autonomous patch management, software deployment, and endpoint security managed service that automates keeping Windows networks up to date and secure. Its solution uses AI as an automated tactical layer alongside existing deployment tools to reduce the time and resources needed to maintain Windows PCs, servers, and VDI by 75% or more. The product is positioned for highly regulated industries such as financial services, life sciences, insurance, and healthcare, and the company says its technology has been proven in some of America’s leading private equity firms. Aiden recently launched a thought-leadership series and is actively engaging the market on zero-trust and AI-enabled security topics. Financially, the company completed a $2.9 million seed funding round to support product hardening and go-to-market expansion. The company plans to use the proceeds to fortify its automated endpoint management solution and execute its GTM strategy.

Led · Series A · Mar 2020

Coterie builds technology that integrates small-business insurance into the platforms and processes businesses already use. The company has formed partnerships to deliver business insurance through tools such as Intuit Quickbooks and Thryv. It recently launched solutions to help independent agents and brokers more seamlessly sell and service small-business insurance. Coterie is led by CEO and co-founder David McFarland. Financially, the company secured additional capital via a Series A-1 financing to support its growth and platform expansion. The firm continues to expand distribution through platform integrations and agent/broker tooling. Coterie is an Ohio-based startup that offers "commercial insurance as a service" via APIs, connecting businesses and platforms with commercial insurance needs to its underwriting systems. The platform ingests multiple data sets to understand applicants and produce more accurate policy pricing. Coterie's systems can decide on the spot whether to bind coverage (coverage in place before a policy is issued). The product is aimed at making it faster and easier for small businesses and freelancers to buy and change general and professional liability insurance, saving time and money. The company will use the new funding to broaden the scope of its AI, including new administrative tasks. Financially, Coterie raised $8.5 million in this Series A and had previously raised over $3 million, bringing total capital raised to more than $12 million.

Led · Series B · Feb 2018

DailyPay offers an On-Demand Pay platform designed to give employees more flexibility and control over when they access their earnings, positioning itself as a modern financial-wellness solution. The company emphasizes its role in “modernizing the employee pay experience,” aiming to improve workers’ financial stability while supporting employer payroll operations. On December 30, 2025, DailyPay secured a new $195 million senior secured revolving credit facility, which the firm says will fortify its balance sheet and fund targeted growth investments. Chief Financial Officer Deepa Subramanian stated that the financing underscores the scalability of DailyPay’s business model and its critical role in the evolving payroll ecosystem. The fresh capital enhances the company’s financial flexibility at a time when it is pursuing long-term expansion initiatives. Although specific operating metrics such as revenue or user numbers were not disclosed, the size and structure of the new facility suggest lender confidence in DailyPay’s growth trajectory.