Participated · Seed · Dec 2023

Crowda provides an AI-powered marketplace that facilitates connections between investors seeking real estate opportunities and developers in need of funding. The platform uses machine learning to match capital with development projects and streamline collaboration. Led by founder and CEO Reza Esmaeili, Crowda aims to enhance the user experience for both investors and developers. The company plans to advance its AI algorithms and expand its network of industry participants. Crowda recently extended its Pre-Seed funding round, strengthening its financial position to support product development and growth. No operating metrics were disclosed in the article. Crowda is an AI-powered funding platform based in Houston, TX that streamlines and enhances financing for real estate development projects. The platform leverages advanced AI algorithms to assess, analyze and match development projects with potential investors, providing developers access to capital and investors data-driven insights. Led by founder and CEO Reza Esmaeili, Crowda plans to use its recent funding to further develop its AI algorithms, expand its network of real estate developers and investors, and enhance the user experience. The company raised $1M in pre-seed funding; backers were not disclosed. The article does not disclose operating metrics such as revenue or user counts.

Participated · Series A · May 2019

Joylux develops app-enabled at-home vaginal health devices (vFit and vSculpt), accessories and digital content that target Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause (GSM) using patented, clinically-validated red-light LED and gentle heat technology. The company app-enabled its devices in 2021 to deliver personalized treatment plans, educational content, and community features. Its products are carried by over 1,000 medical professionals and retail partners and sold in more than 10 countries, including placements with Saks.com, Goop, and Neiman Marcus. Joylux says the technology rebuilds collagen and elastin and increases blood flow in vaginal tissue, producing improvements in GSM symptoms in under eight weeks. The business is pursuing international expansion through a co-brand and private-label partnership with Essity to enter Latin America and Europe and plans to hire key personnel to accelerate growth. The company closed an oversubscribed Series A and will use the funding to expand its product platform and app features. Joylux develops at-home wellness devices focused on women's sexual health. Its flagship product, the vFit, launched a little over a year ago and uses red light therapy, heat and sonic vibration to help restore healthy sexual function. The device can be used on its own or alongside in-office treatments and is currently in about 200 physicians' offices and sold through some retailers, including Goop. The company follows a physician-driven retail model similar to Sonicare or Clarisonic and plans to use new funding to bolster its sales team and scale operations. Joylux has 12 employees and aims to grow to 20 by the end of 2019. It is also pursuing FDA approval for vSculpt, a device to treat incontinence and vaginal atrophy, which is already approved as a medical device in Canada and Europe. Joylux develops and markets the vSculpt home-use intravaginal products, led by CEO and founder Colette Courtion. Its devices use patent-pending light technology and include vSculpt and vSculpt PRO. The company recently received OTC medical device approvals from Health Canada, Europe’s CE Medical Mark, and Australia’s TGA for treatment of stress urinary incontinence and vaginal dryness. Joylux has completed a global launch of vSculpt with market-leading distributors in Canada, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Australia and others. The new capital will fund the U.S. launch of vFit and vFit+ consumer wellness products. Funds will also support continued global sales and marketing expansion of vSculpt and accelerate product development in the emerging pelvic floor health category. Joylux develops the vSculpt, a sonic-powered pelvic‑floor device that uses vibrations to induce repeated muscle contractions as an alternative to manual Kegel exercises. The device is available for pre-order at $345 and features nine LEDs for perineal heating, three therapy modes, and six sonic vibration modes. vSculpt is not yet on sale, and the company says the product launch is the near-term focus. Joylux’s founder Colette Courtion leads a female executive team that includes Program Director Sophia Sanchez and CRO Steve Traplin. The company estimates about three million U.S. women suffer pelvic‑floor weakening and positions its products to address that large unmet need. Joylux also says it has a pipeline of additional women’s‑health products in development and aims to become a consumer‑health platform in the space. Joylux is a Seattle-based consumer health and wellness company that creates LED-based therapeutic products. Its first product, vSculpt, is a home-use medical device designed to address pelvic floor disorders affecting millions of women. The company closed a $3M seed funding round from unnamed private investors to support product development. Joylux intends to use the funds to develop therapeutic LED products and capitalize on the home-use device market, with vSculpt slated to launch in winter 2015. Company leadership includes founder and CEO Colette Courtion, CTO Dr. Nicolas Loebel, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Roger Andersen, and newly added Chief Revenue Officer Steve Traplin. An advisory board was also named, featuring Loebel and Andersen alongside Ken Pilcher and Adam Diamond.