Participated · Seed · Oct 2018

Gradient.io is a Seattle-based company founded in 2018 that applies proprietary machine learning to help marketers drive sales on Amazon. Its platform manages and optimizes digital point-of-sale, providing real-time, data-driven insights that cover every aspect of brand performance. The company’s tools are designed to help brands drive online sales through automated performance optimization. Gradient.io raised $3.5M in seed funding and intends to use the capital to scale its platform. The round was led by Flying Fish Partners with participation from PSL Ventures, MDC Ventures and Black Jays Investments. The company is led by CEO Bobby Figueroa and CTO Vikram Oberoi.

Participated · Seed · Jul 2018

Veritonic positions itself as the independent standard for cultural and creative intelligence, combining Creative, Brand Lift, and Attribution measurement in one adaptive platform. Fueled by millions of consumer and fan insights worldwide, the software helps brands such as Pepsi, Indeed, and CBS forecast, prove, and scale ROI. The technology allows marketers to know, rather than guess, which creative executions and cultural collaborations drive measurable impact. Veritonic’s data capabilities are now being extended to the music and entertainment sector through a new partnership with Authentic Intelligence, giving brands first-look access to emerging talent and cultural IP and the ability to quantify related ROI. This collaboration aims to shift brands from mere sponsorship to ownership of cultural moments. No revenue, user, or other operating metrics were disclosed in the article. Future efforts will center on integrating Authentic Intelligence’s cultural access with Veritonic’s measurement stack to create earlier, smarter investments in cultural partnerships.

Participated · Series B · Jun 2017

Samba TV delivers an AI-driven media intelligence platform that unifies measurement and audience targeting across every screen for advertisers and media companies. Its technology ingests first-party data from millions of opted-in connected televisions and billions of web signals in more than 50 countries, creating a real-time view of the full consumer journey. The company is rolling out "Agentic AI" advertising infrastructure meant to replace traditional, fragmented buying approaches with unified, real-time optimization. Recent strategic partnerships position Samba as a measurement provider to global DSPs, SSPs, and major platforms such as TikTok and Snap. With fresh growth capital in place, management plans to accelerate its AI product roadmap, scale international operations, and continue a history of opportunistic technology acquisitions. Financially, Samba TV has obtained access to up to $60 million of non-dilutive debt, giving the firm additional flexibility without issuing equity.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2017

Entrypoint is a New York City–based self-service development platform for VR content creators. It enables creators to add custom, interactive experiences layered on top of pre-recorded live-action footage, animations, and 360 livestreams for imaginative storytelling, advertising, and e-commerce. Finished experiences publish to a URL that can be viewed on smartphones and desktop and shared through social networks. The company intends to use the $2m in seed funding to bring its technology to market. Entrypoint was co-founded by Carissa Flocken and Ben Doyle. The article does not disclose operating metrics or prior financing details.

Participated · Seed · Dec 2014

Wedgies builds polling tools designed to run natively on social networks and be embedded on websites and blogs, aiming to “legitimize web voting.” The platform supports Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr and has been used by media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and Engadget, as well as e-commerce customers. CEO and co-founder Porter Haney says the product emphasizes quick, shareable polls that drive conversation and enable real-time audience feedback. The company plans 2015 integrations with additional platforms including Reddit, Medium and MailChimp. Wedgies positions its approach as enabling large-scale response collection that can be narrowed to specific groups to approximate scientific results. Financially, the company has raised $700K in the current seed round and its total funding stands at $1.2 million. Wedgies is a Las Vegas-based social polling service that enables users to create simple surveys and share them with friends. The service is led by Jimmy Jacobson and Porter Haney. Advisors to the company include James Haft, Thomas Knoll and Alex Lawrence. On November 14, 2012, Wedgies raised $500K in funding. Backers listed in the report included VegasTechFund, Mike Ciklin (SPB Partners), and angels Steve Slovick and John Eaves. The article does not specify the instrument or terms of the financing.