Led · Equity · May 2018

SocialChorus provides an internal-communications platform that applies marketing techniques—campaign-style messaging, targeting segmentation and telemetry—to help leaders and managers understand how communications land with their workforce. The product gives organizations campaign tools and analytics to track engagement and outcomes across employees. SocialChorus serves large customers including Ford, Archer Daniels Midland and Boeing, and reports about 120 large customers worldwide. The business has been growing at roughly 50% year over year and operates with about 120 employees. CEO Gary Nakamura says the company aims to maintain growth with financial discipline and careful hiring. The recent investment from Sumeru is intended to further capitalize the business for future growth. SocialChorus builds an internal communications platform that lets organizations publish messages to employees, contractors, franchises and other audiences and syndicate content to other tools via API or RSS, including SharePoint, Slack and Workplace by Facebook. The product targets HR, IT, marketing and corporate communicators who need to create and distribute top-down corporate communications across multiple channels. The company is using new funding to expand internationally, specifically opening an EMEA office in London. SocialChorus reports recurring revenues up 120% year‑to‑date, serves more than 100 of the world’s largest companies (including USAA, Phillips 66, Cargill, Lloyds Bank and PG&E), and is not yet profitable. Management and investors position the platform as enterprise‑level and mission‑critical, distinguishing it from general collaboration tools like Slack, Workplace and Microsoft Teams. According to PitchBook figures cited in the article, the company has raised roughly $37 million to date. SocialChorus is a San Francisco-based employee communications platform serving complex, distributed workforces. Led by founder and chief executive officer Gregory Shove, the platform helps HR and communication leaders deliver training videos, surveys, business and HR updates, employee-submitted content and third-party content. The company announced it raised $10m in funding. Kohlberg Ventures made the investment, and SocialChorus is also backed by Western Technology Investment and Windforce Ventures. The company is using the funds to release enhancements to its platform. SocialChorus offers an all-in-one web and mobile Advocate Marketing platform that trains advocates, manages content relevance, integrates with internal systems, runs on any device, and tracks the business impact of content and social engagement. The platform is aimed at helping brands distribute branded content for social selling, social recruiting, content marketing, and employee engagement. Since its Series A in August 2013, the company has added nearly 100 category-leading brands, including large counts of Fortune 50, Most Admired Companies, and major retailers, CPG and telecom firms. SocialChorus announced a $7.5M Series B and total funding of $15.5M to further develop the platform for Global Fortune 1000 customers. The company is opening its first international office in Vancouver, Canada, and hired Lee Diaz as Solutions Director to design employee advocacy programs. The announcement positions SocialChorus to scale its Advocate Marketing offering across large enterprises. SocialChorus offers a cloud-based advocate-marketing platform that helps marketers identify the best potential brand advocates and distribute promotions to them. The platform includes a dashboard that tracks user engagement and sentiment and ingests data from Google Analytics and Omniture. Recent product additions include mobile optimization, LinkedIn integration and automated social engagement detection. The service has been used in more than 200 advocate marketing campaigns for customers such as AT&T, Kia Motors, Peet’s, Toyota, Outback Steakhouse and Windows Phone. The company reported more than 350% growth in new customers over the last year and recently hired Brad Klaus as Chief Revenue Officer. To date the company has raised $8 million, including the new Series A.

Participated · Series C · Aug 2013

Open Road Integrated Media publishes and markets a digital catalog of more than 4,000 ebooks from over 500 authors. Led by cofounder and CEO Jane Friedman, the company focuses on literary fiction and a wide variety of genres and verticals. Its catalog includes backlist titles from authors such as Pat Conroy, Alice Walker, Iris Murdoch, Michael Chabon, Pearl S. Buck, Dorothy L. Sayers and Octavia E. Butler. Open Road also partners with independent publishers to digitally publish and market both backlist and frontlist titles. The company is hiring in New York City and recently completed a financing event that affects its current financial position. The fundraising included a board appointment tied to the lead investor.

Led · Series A · Sep 2011

Vintners' Alliance provides collaborative database technology that helps premium wineries identify purchase patterns, customer preferences, and optimal pricing so they can customize offers through modern e‑commerce techniques. The company was co-founded in 2009 by Ahin Thomas and Pat Connolly and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. Its platform is positioned to help wineries navigate regulatory complexity while improving direct-to-consumer sales and pricing strategies. Management includes Jorge del Calvo, who leads regulatory navigation; John Eastburn (Kohlberg Ventures), who advises on startup operations; and Thampy Thomas, an angel investor who serves as the company’s systems and technology expert. The company recently closed financing, strengthening its ability to expand product adoption among premium wineries. No operating metrics were disclosed in the article.

Participated · Series E · Aug 2011

ClearEdge Power is a Hillsboro, OR-based manufacturer of scalable, distributed power systems that range from 5 kW to multiple megawatts. Led by President and CEO David B. Wright, the company provides clean, distributed power systems for commercial and utility applications. It has over 30 MW installed across hotels, hospitals, schools, data centers, industrial campuses and utilities. In February the company acquired UTC Power, a developer of fuel cells. On March 18, 2013 ClearEdge raised $36m in equity financing; backers were not disclosed. The company intends to use the capital to support manufacturing operations and expand sales activities. ClearEdge Power designs, manufactures and markets the ClearEdge5, a scalable stationary fuel-cell appliance that converts natural gas to electricity and heat for commercial, institutional and residential buildings. The company targets light commercial applications with a modular solution that can be sized to meet individual energy needs and reduce environmental impact. ClearEdge reports year-over-year revenue growth of more than 480% in the recently completed second quarter of 2011 and has created over 150 high-tech jobs in the last three years (more than 300% growth). Recent milestones include a $2.8 million combined industry and government award from the DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, new customer wins, and international expansion activity including deals tied to South Korea. ClearEdge’s management systems are certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. The company plans to use new funding to grow customer adoption in key commercial markets, expand internationally, and develop and commercialize new products. ClearEdge Power is based in Sunnyvale, California, and Hillsboro, Oregon. The company designs, manufactures and markets the ClearEdge5 system, a proven fuel cell appliance that cleanly converts natural gas to electricity and heat. The ClearEdge5 is described as offering significant financial and energy savings and a reduced environmental impact. ClearEdge received a $1M strategic investment from Southern California Gas Co. intended to help accelerate product development. The investment is presented as a strategic addition to SoCalGas's clean energy portfolio. The company is led by President and CEO Russell Ford. ClearEdge Power produces the ClearEdge5, a home fuel cell that turns propane or natural gas into hydrogen and then into about 5 kilowatts of electrical power while recapturing heat for water heaters and HVAC. The unit achieves roughly 90 percent efficiency when heat is counted and retails near $50,000 (about $37,500 after government rebates). The company has been in operation for seven years and is focused on expanding adoption, particularly in California where a rebate is available. ClearEdge recently tripled its staff in less than a year and is looking to double it again as it scales. Management intends to use additional funding to improve the technology and drive down the price to reach more middle-class consumers. The article also notes competition from larger-funded firms like Bloom Energy but positions ClearEdge as focused on residential customers.

Led · Series A · Nov 2010

RealGravity operates a marketplace that connects content owners, advertisers and publishers to buy and sell online video content and advertising. The platform gives web publishers access to more than 500,000 professional videos across dozens of categories and provides enterprise-class video publishing tools at no cost. It also offers an enterprise ad server for managing direct sales and an ad exchange to optimize unsold inventory. The company counts users such as VIBE Media, NBC Universal, Howcast, Tribune and Local.com. RealGravity is based in San Francisco and Los Angeles and recently closed a $3.2m Series A financing.