Participated · Series B · Jun 2020

Steady provides a mobile platform that helps hourly and gig workers track income, receive personalized income insights, find relevant work opportunities, and access benefits such as telemedicine. The app also offers programs that pay members to improve their financial health and delivers community-based data and trends. Steady reports nearly 2 million members who have linked bank accounts to the platform and more than 2.7 million app downloads. The company emphasizes using community data to surface worker trends and inform product decisions. Steady has launched COVID-19–focused initiatives, including Steady Together, distribution of $2 million in emergency cash grants, and free telemedicine subscriptions through at least August 1. Funds from its recent raise are intended to accelerate growth and expand U.S.-based data, product, and technical operations. Steady is an income-building platform that helps BYO workers discover and apply for extra income opportunities, track earnings, and access exclusive discounts. The product delivers personalized income-building opportunities, an income tracker, and a marketplace of benefits including prescriptions, groceries, auto care, and telecom discounts. Since launching last week the company is already serving 100,000 Americans. Steady says it will later roll out initial financial products and advice and will advocate with financial institutions to expand access to key financial products for BYO workers. The service is available for free on the App Store, Google Play, and web. Steady raised $9 million in a Series A to rapidly scale and extend product features, with lead and participating investors named in the articles.

Led · Equity · Sep 2019

Deckard Technologies provides data-driven compliance software that enables municipalities to identify, monitor, and tax rental properties. Its flagship product, Rentalscape, oversees more than 250,000 short-term rentals (STR) for over 400 jurisdictions across the United States, Canada, and Australia. The company has recorded more than 60% year-on-year revenue growth over the past 12 months, demonstrating strong traction. Building on its STR success, Deckard is now developing a long-term rental (LTR) compliance platform to address housing affordability, tenant safety, and broader property oversight—an addressable market estimated to be three to seven times larger than STR. The firm plans to use new capital to accelerate product development and expand sales and client-service teams. Founded in Australia and now headquartered in the United States, Deckard has previously raised $10.3 million in equity from Australian VC firm EVP. Its technology ultimately aims to give local governments modern, data-rich tools that increase revenue collection and improve community outcomes.

Participated · Equity · Jul 2019

Mercato is a platform-as-a-service that helps smaller grocers and specialty food stores go online quickly, offering an e-commerce storefront, white-label options, and a centralized product catalog of over one million items. Its solution includes a data analytics platform, integrations with more than 30 POS systems, and machine-learning-driven stock inference that maps roughly 95% of a store's products in minutes. Merchants can maintain the customer relationship by handling orders themselves while Mercato contracts with national and regional couriers for delivery. The company generates revenue from a consumer membership program (plans range from $96/year to $228/year) and from merchants via a single-digit percentage transaction fee. Mercato scaled to more than 1,000 merchants across 45 U.S. states, reported more than 1 million customers, and grew merchant sales 1,300% in 2020. Future plans include adding a supply platform, expanding its data analytics and consumer subscription benefits, and growing its remotely distributed team (now about 80 employees). Mercato builds an e-commerce platform that lets independent grocers offer online ordering, deliver within a 15-mile radius, and communicate directly with customers. The platform also provides merchants with analytics on products and pricing. Mercato reports a network of 750 independent grocers and plans to add more with the recent funding. The company intends to use the capital to expand into new markets, build out its sales and marketing team, and further develop its analytics. Founder and CEO Bobby Brannigan started Mercato in 2015 and relocated the company to downtown San Diego earlier this year, operating from coworking space Downtown Works. Brannigan previously founded ValoreBooks, which grew to $85 million in revenue before being sold to SimpleTuition. Mercato operates a mobile-focused e-commerce and marketing platform that enables independent and specialty grocers to sell locally sourced food to consumers. The platform offers marketing, e-commerce, and service tools for local butchers, seafood and produce markets, bakers, and small grocers to connect seamlessly with consumers. Since launching in 2015, Mercato has built networks of local retailers across seven U.S. markets and is operating in New York (Brooklyn, Manhattan & Queens), Chicago, San Francisco, Alameda, Washington, D.C., and Princeton, NJ. The company has been rapidly adding merchants—22 specialty and small grocery stores in April and 35 in the first week of June—and retailers report hundreds of transactions per week. A recent capital infusion from Michael Loeb’s private investment platform will be used to increase marketing and sales efforts and to expand Mercato’s roster of team members during this period of significant growth. Founder and CEO Bobby Brannigan created Mercato drawing on his experience in his family’s butcher shop and grocery store to bring independent grocers into the future. Mercato is an online marketplace for specialty food stores that helps merchants sell online and offers local and national delivery. The company positions itself as the only online marketplace focused on specialty grocers. CEO Bobby Brannigan says the idea was inspired by his family’s Italian grocery in Brooklyn, which his family has operated for over 40 years. Mercato’s business model is commission-based, earning a fee on each sale paid by the store. The startup raised a $1M seed round via a convertible note from several angel investors. The team raised capital before the product launched and said the fundraising process involved meetings with many angel and VC investors, including Richard Branson. Near-term plans include proving the concept in Brooklyn, integrating 50 merchants in NYC over the next six months, and expanding to additional territories thereafter.

Led · Series A · Nov 2018

SummitSync is an NYC-based meeting automation platform serving B2B companies that want to schedule more meetings at conferences and trade shows. The company offers an AI and machine-learning platform developed in partnership with Microsoft. Its platform includes enterprise-class features for data capture, CRM integration, and performance analytics. These capabilities are designed to help sales and marketing teams engage, nurture, and quantify business opportunities at events. SummitSync recently secured $4.8M in Series A funding and added Jimmy Chin as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing to drive demand generation and amplify the platform. The company is led by founder and CEO John Corrigan.

Led · Seed · Jun 2016

LinkBee is an IoT smart home company centered on proprietary LED light bulbs and sensors that leverage environmental feedback and intelligent, self-learning algorithms to enhance the home environment. The company is led by CEO Dr. Jason Slosberg and was founded in early 2015. LinkBee plans to deploy its solution in select cities later this year and to launch nationally in 2017. It intends to use the funds to accelerate product development and expand its team in the Bay Area. The company is based in New York City and Sunnyvale, California. LinkBee closed a $6M seed funding round to advance its platform and commercial rollout.