The Venture Codex

Participated · Seed · May 2022

Spectrohm develops a patented radio-wave imaging and identification system combined with AI software to provide autonomous security screening and threat identification for mail, packages and cargo. The technology is non‑ionizing, unlike x‑ray systems, and is intended for applications such as mail screening, customs inspection, and border and aviation security. The company will initially focus on high‑speed inspection of international air‑cargo packages to detect threats to flight safety and smuggled narcotics and opioids. Led by CEO Tim Cargol, Spectrohm aims to expand operations and business reach using new capital. The company raised a $2M seed round to accelerate growth and scale its solutions.

Participated · Equity · Jun 2014

TOK.tv is a mobile social network for sports teams that enables fans to talk with up to four friends while watching a match on TV. The platform integrates a Social Button into team apps and powers official apps for FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus and the Italian Serie A, while allowing fans to send stadium sounds and take social selfies. In the past twelve months the company grew its user base from 500K to over 8M users, with fans taking more than 2.5M social selfies. The company intends to use the Series A funds to expand its social network partner base to the USA and bring its voice platform to U.S. teams and leagues. TOK.tv is led by CEO Fabrizio Capobianco and co‑founder Emanuela Zaccone and is based in San Francisco, with offices in London and Milan. TOK.tv offers mobile apps that let fans watch sports events and create virtual living rooms of up to four people, alongside real-time event information and statistics. The service was live with TOK Baseball, TOK Football and Juventus Live. With the beginning of the 2014 World Cup it launched TOK for Brazil and published national-team apps for multiple countries. The company was co-founded by Fabrizio Capobianco, a serial entrepreneur and Funambol President, and Emanuela Zaccone, a social media strategist. TOK.tv is based in Palo Alto, California. Financially, the company raised $820K in the reported funding round. Tok.tv builds a second-screen sports app that emphasizes live voice chat, letting up to four remote users mimic the shared experience of watching a game. Its Tok Baseball iPad app delivers game stats and now adds pre- and post-game features such as lineup predictions and recaps. The company tested its voice functionality during the prior baseball season and the Academy Awards. Founder and CEO Fabrizio Capobianco, who previously led Funambol, says voice generates more emotion than text and sees opportunities for advertisers to engage live viewers. Tok.tv is working to add voice features for before- and after-game interactions. Financially, the company has raised $400,000 in angel funding and plans to begin raising another round in the second quarter.

Participated · Series A · Jan 2010

Vanilla Forums offers a cloud-based online community software platform that combines customer communities, Q&A, a knowledge base, and ideation. The product is designed to improve customer experience, drive brand loyalty, foster meaningful connections, and reduce support costs. The company said it will use the new funds to support growth and accelerate expansion into new markets. Vanilla was founded in 2009 and is led by CEO Luc Vezina. The investment amount was not disclosed in the article. The reported investor is Level Equity. Vanilla Forums operates Vanilla, an open source community forum software and a hosted forum platform that lets customers deploy community forums without writing code. The company has released two premium features—custom domains and ad-removal—to integrate with customers' web presence. It plans to add additional premium features including custom CSS, single sign-on, and forum analytics in the near future. Vanilla Forums is based in Montreal, Canada. The company closed a CAD$500,000 Series A and will use the funds to expand marketing, development and sales efforts. Investors in the round include Montreal Startup, eonBusiness, Klein Venture Partners and Norseman Capital.