Participated · Seed · Jun 2018

Newchip is an Austin, Texas-based investment marketplace led by founder and CEO Ryan Rafols and co-founder/CFO Judd Hollas. The platform lets new and experienced investors discover opportunities, start investing with as little as $100, and build diversified portfolios while enabling entrepreneurs to raise up to $50 million. The company has opened its marketplace to blockchain and securitized tokens and continually adds new sectors, categories, and hundreds of investment opportunities each month. In 2017, more than 800 listed companies sought about $300 million in investment capital through the platform. Newchip intends to use the funds to expand its operations and broaden its business reach. Backers in the reported round include JadeValue Fintech, Yeoman’s Capital, Spunik ATX, Youbi Capital and Polymath.

Led · Series A · Apr 2018

Coutloot operates a social commerce marketplace where buyers and sellers can bargain while shopping, with sellers listing unbranded local-market products across fashion, electronics, home decor, sports and other boxed categories. The company targets rising consumption from tier‑2 and tier‑3 India and aims to converge online and offline retail, serving a market segment that makes up roughly 75% of India’s retail sector. Coutloot says it grew 11x during the pandemic and has delivered a compound annual growth rate of 300% over the past three years, and is looking to hit a platform GMV of Rs 1,000 crore in 2022. The startup plans product and service expansions including working-capital solutions for retailers, video-stories commerce features, and scaling its B2B supply chain. It also intends to increase hiring across technology, marketing and leadership roles to support growth. Founded in 2016, the company describes its ambition as building a Taobao‑like conversational social commerce experience for India’s local languages and markets. CoutLoot began as a seller-focused fashion service in Mumbai and has evolved into a consumer-to-consumer (C2C) platform for labels and users to list and sell clothing. The company operates an app that has been downloaded over 500,000 times and now services 14 cities after expanding from a one-city presence. CoutLoot runs a 'Celebrity Closet' with exclusive listings from TV personalities including Karishma Tanna, Aditi Bhatia, Niti Taylor and Aarti Chabbria. Management says it will pursue aggressive geographic expansion and diversify into other categories within the C2C model. The company is also piloting offline 'pop up shop' stores to complement its online business. CoutLoot positions itself as a technology-driven re-commerce marketplace focused on a customer-centric experience.