Participated · Seed · Jun 2024

bluShift Aerospace manufactures non-toxic biofuel and reusable rockets to serve the orbital and small-satellite launch market. The company is also developing a private launch site on Maine’s Downeast coastline to enable access to polar and sun-synchronous orbits. bluShift positions itself to offer rapid, affordable direct delivery to desired orbits as an alternative to rideshares on larger vehicles. The new capital will be used to complete a full-duration burn engine test and to prepare for commercial suborbital launches in 2025. Management highlights vertical integration across fuel, vehicles, and launch infrastructure as a competitive advantage. To date the company has previously raised nearly $4 million in addition to this latest financing.

Participated · Debt Financing · Apr 2024

Vertical Harvest creates multi-storey, controlled-environment farms that leverage proprietary AI and advanced digital systems from partners such as Elevated Signals and Siemens to maximize yield and resource efficiency. Its new flagship farm in Westbrook, Maine produces the equivalent of 250 acres of traditional farmland on just half an acre while using 95% less water and achieving what the company claims is the lowest energy consumption per pound of food in the sector. The platform is built to be replicable, providing a scalable pathway for sustainable food production in urban settings worldwide. Beyond technology, the firm embeds a social-impact model that offers tailored careers to under-represented workers, including people with disabilities, turning high-tech agriculture into an engine of economic inclusion. Management positions the company as part of “Vertical Farming 2.0,” seeking to pair AI with controlled-environment agriculture to solve the traditional sector’s labor- and energy-intensive economics. By addressing both climate resilience and food sovereignty, the company is targeting expansion into global smart cities, particularly in regions where food security is a national priority. No revenue, valuation, or user metrics were disclosed in the article.

Participated · Seed · Sep 2023

pumpspotting offers a tech-enabled, community-centric lactation program that helps organizations implement comprehensive baby-feeding support and compliance with federal, state, and city laws. The platform is delivered as an employee benefit and as a commercial solution for guests, customers, fans, patients, and visitors. pumpspotting has served more than 70,000 parents since its founding, and the product emphasizes continuous community support and expert guidance for feeding journeys at work, home, and on-the-go. The company has expanded beyond workplace programs into retail and community partnerships and is launching pumpspotting Healthcare to serve health-care environments. pumpspotting positions its offering as a way for employers to attract, retain, and support parents while meeting new legal requirements such as the PUMP Act and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Customers and partners cited in the article include DraftKings, Consigli Construction, Ally Logistics, the Portland Sea Dogs, and the Waukesha County Breastfeeding Coalition. pumpspotting provides software and services that support nursing, pumping, and breastfeeding parents, offering access to feeding experts, evidence-based content, and personalized encouragement. Its platform creates safe places to nurse and pump worldwide and connects a virtual community of parents 24×7. The company’s solutions are deployed by employers, retailers, universities and other partners. pumpspotting has supported a virtual community of more than 40,000 baby-feeding parents. The company raised $1.15M in seed funding and intends to use the proceeds to accelerate growth in the B2B channel. pumpspotting was founded in 2015 by CEO Amy VanHaren and is based in Kittery, Maine.

Participated · Equity · Aug 2022

Defendify delivers multiple layers of cybersecurity protection designed to continuously strengthen security across people, process, and technology. Its platform consolidates assessments, testing, policies, training, detection, and response into a single cost-effective solution. The company serves scaling organizations and has added thousands of customers across more than 60 countries. Despite the pandemic, Defendify has continued strong growth and has doubled its team size. Recent strategic additions include former Oracle CIO Mark Sunday as senior advisor, Emily Carville as CMO, and John Mayfield as director of sales. The company intends to use the new funding to accelerate go-to-market strategies, product development, and team expansion. Defendify is a Portland, Maine-based developer of a SaaS cybersecurity platform serving small businesses and channel partners. Its platform provides multiple layers of ongoing protection to continuously improve customers' security posture. The company closed a $2M seed funding round led by existing investor 3dot6 Ventures with participation from York IE, Maine Technology Institute (MTI), Maine Venture Fund (MVF), FreshTracks Capital and Wasabi Ventures. Defendify intends to use the funds to expand its core product, invest in sales and marketing, and make strategic hires. In the last 18 months the company has raised a total of $3.6M, added thousands of users and doubled its employee count. Defendify was co-founded by Andrew Rinaldi and Rob Simopoulos. Defendify provides a SaaS-delivered cybersecurity platform tailored for small businesses. It partners with channel resellers to offer a holistic, multi-layered solution that continuously improves security posture against evolving threats. The platform features multiple layers of ongoing protection and is designed to scale as small businesses grow. Co-founded by Andrew Rinaldi and Rob Simopoulos and based in Portland, Maine, the company sells through channel partners. Defendify raised $1.6M in pre-seed funding and plans to use proceeds to expand its core product and increase partner acquisition. Backers include Maine Technology Institute and 3dot6 Ventures.

Participated · Debt Financing · Mar 2020

HighByte is a Portland, ME-based industrial software company that develops the HighByte Intelligence Hub, an Industrial DataOps solution that enables manufacturers to merge, prepare, and deliver modeled industrial data to and from IT systems without writing or maintaining code. The Intelligence Hub was first released in 2020 and has been deployed in 18 countries by more than 60 industrial companies with multi-plant facilities. Led by CEO Tony Paine, the company plans to use new funding to invest in research and development, strategic partner management, and customer success to accelerate market penetration and expand deployments within existing accounts. The $12M Series A financing provides capital to support those initiatives and to expand global partnerships and talent recruitment. Management characterized the investment as validation of the company's mission and essential for the next stage of growth. Ben Sampson of Standard Investments will join HighByte's board of directors. HighByte develops an Industrial DataOps product, HighByte Intelligence Hub, that enables manufacturers to merge, prepare, and deliver modeled industrial data to and from IT systems without writing or maintaining code. The company targets manufacturers across verticals—pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, paper and packaging, and industrial products—and says it has proven product-market fit in the past 12 months. HighByte reports deployments in 10 countries by dozens of major manufacturers with multi-plant facilities, and its product was first released in January 2020. The company plans to allocate new funds to R&D, sales, marketing, and customer success to accelerate market penetration and expand deployments within existing accounts. HighByte positions its software to drive industrial operations effectiveness by delivering trusted, ready-to-use data for sites and enterprise-wide operations. The company is headquartered in Portland, Maine. HighByte builds a DataOps solution purpose-built for industrial environments, targeting data architecture and security challenges created by Industry 4.0 at the Edge. The product is designed to manage assets, products, and processes at the Edge to improve industrial data flows and security. The company was co-founded by John Harrington, Tony Paine and Torey Penrod-Cambra and is based in Portland, Maine. Prior to this round, HighByte was funded through founder contributions and received $100K in grants from the Maine Technology Institute. In March 2020 HighByte raised $875K in pre-seed funding, structured as $625K in convertible debt matched by a $250K long-term, low-interest loan from the Maine Technology Institute. The company plans to use the funds for business development and to add R&D headcount in 2020.