The Venture Codex

Participated · Seed · Sep 2025

Parento offers a three-in-one paid parental leave solution that bundles customizable parental leave insurance, parental leave management services, and personalized one-on-one parent coaching. Its insurance product can provide up to 100% financial coverage and converts unpredictable leave costs into predictable premiums for small and mid-sized employers. The company reports strong outcomes: 95% of Parento parents return to work after leave, 10% average engagement rates for its coaching services, and 46% of claims were filed by men with up to 33% of men using one-on-one coaching. Parento serves diverse industries—25% of clients are in nonprofit or manufacturing/warehousing—and works with professional services, healthcare, law firms, nonprofits, and municipal organizations. Partnerships include the International Union of Operating Engineers (enabling first international expansion into Canada) and PEOs including one that serves more than half a million clients. Parento will use new capital to expand product development, sales, and marketing while launching additional insurance offerings and new products.

Participated · Series A · Mar 2025

Subscript offers an AI-powered platform that automates billing, revenue tracking, and financial analysis for B2B SaaS companies. Led by CEO Sidharth Kakkar, the company provides automated billing, revenue recognition, B2B SaaS analytics, and dunning in a single product. Finance leaders at companies including Pave, AcuityMD, and EliseAI use the platform. The company raised $15M in a Series A led by Pelion, bringing total funding to date to $21M including prior investments. Previous investors include First Round Capital, Kapor Capital, Forum Ventures, and Fresco Capital. Subscript plans to use the funds to expand its AI-powered automation features and enhance its suite of software for SaaS finance teams. Subscript is a subscription intelligence startup, founded in December 2020 by Sidharth Kakkar with Michelle Lee as an early partner, that builds APIs to ingest data from CRMs, general ledgers and billing products to produce up-to-date subscription revenue metrics. Its product creates custom data pipelines that organize revenue and separate one-time from recurring revenue, providing a centralized "revenue source of truth" for finance teams. The platform lets users slice cohorts and metrics for investors, boards and leadership to make data-driven decisions. The company is still in beta and is opening the beta more broadly as it grows. Subscript works with 21 customers, including Circle and Flipcause, and is tracking over $100 million of customers' revenue. The team plans to use the new funding to expand engineering and market-support functions and to tackle complex models such as usage-based billing.

Participated · Equity · Jan 2025

Beanstack is an edtech platform that empowers libraries and schools to build a culture of reading through reading challenges and motivational tools for readers of all ages. The company evolved from a book-of-the-month concept into Beanstack for Schools, which uses proven gamification principles to motivate students without relying on quizzes. Its product is licensed by over 15,000 libraries and schools worldwide, and Beanstack readers have logged over seven billion minutes of reading. The company says it is growing significantly year over year. Beanstack plans to use new capital to accelerate its repeatable growth model and to invest in its "Reading Culture Trailblazer" client marketing program. The team was founded by Felix Brandon Lloyd and Jordan Lloyd Bookey, who previously secured a $250,000 Shark Tank investment from Mark Cuban. Zoobean builds Beanstack, a software platform that helps educators and librarians run reading challenges and track participant progress with data-driven insights. Beanstack is licensed to more than 1,200 public libraries and schools worldwide and is often described as the “Fitbit for reading.” The company first gained attention after appearing on Shark Tank, where Mark Cuban invested, and he has re-invested in the latest funding. Amazon’s Alexa Fund joined the new investment and Zoobean is exploring Alexa integrations so readers can ask Alexa to track progress or receive reading reminders. The company did not disclose the size of the round and Amazon declines to share the size of its Alexa Fund investments. No operating metrics beyond licenses/users or revenue figures were disclosed in the article. Zoobean is an Arlington, VA–based startup that curates personalized selections of children's apps, books and reading guides. Its product relies on a team of curators who rate and tag apps and books, and a recommendation system that generates personalized picks when customers enter a child's interests. The company also provides reading guides and tools that facilitate collaboration between teachers and families. Led by CEO Felix Brandon Lloyd, Zoobean plans to use new funding to increase marketing and continue product development. Financing details in the most recent transaction were not disclosed. Previously, the company raised $500K in seed funding in 2013. Zoobean curates children's books and offers a handpicked monthly hardcover subscription alongside an online shop. At launch the site catalogs nearly 1,500 parent-recommended titles curated by parents, teachers, librarians and others, with extensive tagging for topics, characters' backgrounds and recommended ages. Subscribers pay $14.95 for the featured high-quality hardcover of the month, while the majority of catalog sales are fulfilled through affiliates such as Amazon. The company also provides a weekly reading guide with activities for parents and children. Zoobean emphasizes diversity in its selection, including books that reflect various ethnicities and harder-to-find topics like transgender issues and bullying. It exited a private, invite-only beta with about 200 testers and plans to expand its offering while raising additional capital.

Participated · Seed · Jul 2024

Malaica offers a comprehensive pregnancy and motherhood platform including monthly physical checkups, birth preparation classes, specialist consultations, tailored vaginal and caesarean delivery packages, and online support from nurse‑midwives and gynaecologists. The platform also hosts private support groups and free educational content to build community and improve maternal care. Founded by serial entrepreneur Pascal Koenig and colleagues in Kenya, Malaica has supported 261,000 Kenyan women with free content and 1,811 women within its paid program since launch two years ago. The company reports roughly 10% month‑over‑month revenue growth since launch. Malaica aims to scale impact and financial sustainability to reduce maternal mortality in Sub‑Saharan Africa. It recently partnered with Britam Insurance to roll out its program across higher and lower income populations in Kenya.

Led · Equity · Apr 2024

Lirvana Labs develops Yeti Confetti™ Kids, an LLM-powered personalized learning companion delivering AI-directed instruction for preschool to lower elementary students. The app offers a tailored curriculum covering English, Math, Social Emotional learning, and Critical Thinking. To date the product has delivered over 160,000 minutes of AI-piloted lessons to 15,000 children worldwide. The company also provides a data-visualization platform to help schools, teachers, and parents track learner engagement and outcomes. Lirvana Labs partners with needs-based schools in Thailand and NGOs such as Jusoor to reach refugee and underserved learners, and works with academic and curriculum experts to validate its approach. The team plans global expansion across five continents in 2024, adding native languages including English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Arabic and pursuing efficacy studies with research institutions and pilot schools.