Participated · Equity · Jul 2026

Founded in 2024 and based in Chicago, Rise Reforming develops a three-step, patented process that converts residual biogas into syngas and then into liquid chemicals including dimethyl ether (DME), methanol and dimethyl carbonate (DMC). The company reports over 1,800 hours of stable syngas production in tests and has built commercial momentum with supply agreements and offtake LOIs for its products. With a four-person team, Rise prioritizes a modular, container-sized unit design that is deployed on-site to avoid transportation costs and simplify logistics. Rise has broken ground on a pilot at a Chicagoland wastewater treatment plant, slated as the first biogas-to-methanol demonstration in the Americas with expected operation in 2027. The startup’s investor base includes Y Combinator, 776 Foundation, LongJump VC and University of Chicago-affiliated backers, and it lists support from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Participated · Seed · May 2026

Stock operates a supply-chain technology platform that matches brands and third-party logistics operators with nonprofits to donate excess and end-of-life inventory. Founder Abby Nawrocki, who worked in U.S. distribution for brands including Zara, Skims and Uniqlo and later at third-party logistics startup Deliverr, launched the company in 2024 after repeatedly encountering retail waste. Nawrocki left her corporate role in October 2025 to build Stock full time. The company targets a sizable waste problem highlighted by a 2022 Avery Dennison report estimating $163 billion in usable inventory discarded annually by U.S. 3PLs. Financially, Stock has just completed a $1.5 million pre-seed round led by M25 with participation from Storytime Capital, Mighty Capital, LongJump and IU Ventures to support its early growth. No revenue, user metrics, or prior institutional funding are reported in the article.

Participated · Equity · Sep 2025

Unvale provides creators with tools to organize and share character pages, backstories, concept art, and writing while layering social features that help them attract and engage followers from day one. The platform prohibits AI-generated content, positioning itself as a creator-first hub that supports original intellectual property rather than machine-produced work. Users have generated more than 3 million stories, 30 million story views, and 15 million meaningful social interactions, driving 250 thousand sign-ups to date. Infrastructure upgrades now support roughly one million meaningful social interactions per month, alongside automated moderation and cross-platform sharing. Unvale aims to capture a share of the $470 billion fiction, comics, and animation market, with ambitions to become the world’s largest producer of animated content and a top career destination for young creatives. Future product plans include deeper publishing capabilities that allow creators to release novels, comics, or animations directly on the platform. To date, the company has raised $1.8 million from a roster of early-stage investors to fuel continued growth and product development.

Participated · Seed · May 2024

Swivel (formerly PilotDesk) offers a no-code AI workflow automation platform designed to remove repetitive work in ad operations and account management. The company focuses on AI-driven orchestration, unified analytics, and seamless integrations with ad servers, DSPs, SSPs, and OMS platforms. Swivel says its automation engine has already produced measurable results — in a deployment with LG Ad Solutions it performed over half a million automated actions, equating to roughly 25,000 hours of manual ad-operations time saved and moving from pilot to a long-term partnership. The team includes co-founders Joe Hirsch, Matt Dearborn, and Rich Lin, plus President Frans Vermeulen and CTO Geir Magnusson Jr., bringing deep adtech and technical experience. The company rebranded from PilotDesk to Swivel as it shifts to building more intelligent systems to eliminate the need for staff to "swivel-chair" between multiple ad platforms and to enable automation in revenue operations at scale. Funding announced in April 2025 will support team growth and accelerate product development focused on deeper AI orchestration and integrations. UnVale is a platform for storytellers to develop entire worlds of content, enabling writers, illustrators, and animators to grow an audience and publish long-form work in serialized pieces. The product breaks down long-form content into easy-to-digest releases so creators can expand their fanbase with each update. The company positions itself as an alternative to short-form influencer-focused social platforms, emphasizing public worldbuilding and story craft. Operating metrics cited in the announcement include 150k users (700% growth year-to-date), 1M pieces of original content, and 3M social interactions (28x growth YTD). UnVale said the $1M pre-seed raise will accelerate growth through 2025. The company is actively hiring backend engineers and aims to use its momentum to help creators self-publish and signal audience interest to publishers.

Participated · Seed · May 2023

Grapefruit Health builds a remote-work solution aimed at addressing the healthcare workforce shortage. The company announced it recently hit its one-year mark and is continuing to develop and scale its offering. It raised a $1.3 million pre-seed round that was 30% oversubscribed, providing early capital to expand operations. Investors in the round include Antler, GoAhead Ventures, Hustle Fund, Litquidity Capital, LongJump, SUM Ventures, Sweater, and Everywhere Ventures (The Fund). The company also received grants from Google for Startups, Village Capital, Rhetoric, and P33 Chicago, and credits mentorship from TechRise Chicago. Leadership frames the raise as the start of growth toward fixing healthcare staffing challenges.