Led · Series A · Jun 2024

Whizz operates a subscription model providing compliant, safety-focused e-bikes to last-mile delivery drivers, removing upfront purchase barriers for drivers with limited credit history. The company reports 3.5x year-over-year growth and annual recurring revenue exceeding $8 million. Whizz currently operates a fleet of 2,500 e-bikes with features such as long battery life, GPS tracking, and anti-theft systems. It has strategic partnerships with DoorDash and Grubhub, which together represent a large share of the US food delivery market. Whizz plans to expand geographically beyond New York and New Jersey, scale its fleet toward a 200,000-vehicle target by 2030, and introduce electric mopeds to its offering. The founding team emphasizes a mission to empower immigrant delivery workers by improving safety, earnings potential, and access to electric transportation. Whizz operates an e-bike subscription platform that provides long-range e-bikes, on-demand maintenance and same-day replacements for delivery drivers, powered by its Whizz Automation Platform. Founded in 2021 and led by CEO Mike Peregudov, the company is based in New York. Its rental service has been used by more than 2,000 delivery workers, including drivers from Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub. The platform combines hardware, maintenance logistics and automation to serve delivery drivers’ needs. Whizz intends to use new funding to accelerate growth, upgrade the platform and open additional locations in New York. The company’s recent financing activity has bolstered its capital base to support those operational expansions.

Participated · Seed · Aug 2023

ShapesXR is a creation and collaboration platform for XR content and experiences that enables remote product teams to brainstorm and ideate in 3D, rapidly prototype, and co-edit in real time. Users can create immersive storyboards to show designs in function and invite teammates to ideate, iterate and run design reviews. Led by CEO and founder Inga Petryaevskaya and based in San Mateo, California, the company focuses on tools for XR and metaverse workflows. ShapesXR recently raised $8.6M in seed funding to support growth and development. The company intends to use the proceeds to grow its business reach and expand the product onto new platforms such as Apple’s Vision Pro and the Magic Leap 2. Investors named in the articles include Supernode Global, Triptyq Capital, Hartmann Capital, Geek Ventures, Boost VC, LETA Capital, WXR Fund and STRATMINDS, alongside early backers like HTC VIVE and The VR Fund.

Participated · Series A · Apr 2022

Gaviti is a Tel Aviv, Israel-based Software-as-a-Service company that provides an automation system to help companies collect and manage client invoices. Its platform accelerates receivable collections by mapping out collection processes to identify inefficiencies and optimize team procedures. Gaviti integrates with online accounting software such as SAP, QuickBooks, Priority ERP, and NetSuite to import client data and update in real time. The system sends customizable, automated reminders through workflows and offers an interactive dashboard with analytics and an up-to-date aging report to increase visibility across finance and sales teams. The company is led by co-founders Yan Lazarev (CEO) and Alex Komarovsky (CTO) and delivers its solution as a SaaS product. Gaviti raised a $9M Series A and intends to use the funds to expand its services.

Led · Series A · Oct 2021

Prodly offers the AppOps suite that automates release management, sandbox seeding, data migration and regression testing for Salesforce, designed for admins and citizen developers. Its tools target non-coders, simplifying change management so companies can accelerate innovation on the Salesforce platform without introducing risk to critical business processes. Prodly says customers can increase productivity 65–80% and reduce risk up to 30%, and that AppOps can be implemented 20 times faster than traditional applications. The company powers change-management workflows for high-growth and Fortune 100 customers including Cardinal Health, Nutanix, Johnson & Johnson, Splunk, and Verizon. Prodly is privately held and based in Palo Alto, California, with global operations. The firm plans to expand its next-generation DevOps solutions beyond Salesforce to additional low-code cloud platforms (ERP, HCM, and others) and to scale product development and go-to-market teams. Prodly provides automation and testing software to streamline configuration changes and deployments on low-code cloud platforms. The product automates configuration updates, offers a testing environment to validate changes, and aims to automate deployments. Today the company is focused on configuration capabilities but plans to expand the product to address testing and deployment workflows after this raise. Prodly targets Salesforce administrators first but the team says the same admin productivity problems exist across other cloud platforms such as ServiceNow and Workday. The company already has commercial traction, with roughly 100 customers using the product, including Nutanix, Johnson & Johnson, Splunk, Tableau and Verizon. The team is led by Max Rudman, who previously sold Steelbrick to Salesforce for $360 million in 2015.

Participated · Series B · Aug 2021

Novakid offers virtual-only English language immersion for kids aged four through 12, combining live, video-based classes with in-house gamified and VR-enhanced content. New users are connected to one of the company’s 2,000 live tutors, who are native English speakers with a B.A. and international teaching certifications; classes are conducted only in English to build speaking confidence. The product mixes synchronous tutoring with asynchronous self-paced games and multiplayer exercises; students currently spend roughly two-thirds of their time with tutors and one-third with self-paced content. Novakid reports an active client base that grew 350% year over year to over 50,000 paying students. Financially, the company reported $9 million in revenue in 2020 and expects $36 million–$45 million in revenue for 2021. Management plans to use new capital to acquire more students, expand into international markets, and ramp hiring—adding about 200 people to its roughly 300-person team. Novakid offers an English-as-a-second-language platform for children aged 4–12 that combines a highly interactive digital curriculum with individual live tutor sessions conducted entirely in English for full immersion. Its teaching approach draws on language-acquisition theories from Asher, Thornbury, Krashen and Chomsky. The company is incorporated in the U.S. with development and customer support based around Europe. Novakid monetizes via paid subscriptions. The startup has reported over 500% year-on-year growth in both student numbers and revenue and highlights strong customer retention. CEO Max Azarow says Novakid is reinventing English learning in non–English-speaking countries by prioritizing live practice over abstract, grammar-focused instruction. Novakid operates an online English language platform for children aged 4-12, with all qualified teachers who are native speakers. Lessons run on an in-house web platform enhanced with virtual reality and gamification and use an MMORPG-style model that lets students interact and earn achievements while teachers moderate. The platform uses a machine-learning based automated assessment built on more than 900 parameters, AI testing and other big-data components to produce precise learning-performance indicators and personalize programs. Novakid serves students in 36 countries, including Poland, Russia, Spain, Germany and Turkey, and emphasizes cultural diversity by employing teachers with various ethno-cultural backgrounds to align with local norms. Founded in 2017, the company reported annual turnover exceeding €1.8 million in 2019, a figure that tripled from the prior year. The company plans to use new funds for product improvement and further geographical expansion while aiming to maintain its growth trajectory into 2020.