The Venture Codex

Participated · Seed · Apr 2023

FiVerity provides an anti-fraud collaboration platform that enables real-time information sharing through anonymized exchange of fraud intelligence among financial institutions, data providers, and anti-fraud solutions. Led by CEO Greg Woolf, the platform delivers proactive alerts, transparent risk scoring, and automated fraud classification to accelerate detection and prevention of known and unknown fraud. The company has worked closely with financial institutions, regulators and organizations such as the U.S. Federal Reserve and FinCEN during platform development. FiVerity intends to use the new funding to expand its Digital Fraud Network and to introduce advanced machine learning algorithms that identify evolving fraud methods and compare those patterns against clients' applications. The company is based in Boston, MA and is positioning its anonymized intelligence-exchange capabilities for broader industry adoption. FiVerity develops a machine-learning platform, SynthID®, that detects and prevents sophisticated cyber fraud in real time, with initial focus on synthetic identity fraud (SIF). The platform overlays existing systems and data services, learning from human intelligence and sharing actionable threat intelligence across a community of financial institutions, regulators, and law enforcement. FiVerity reports customer results of preventing SIF “upwards of 40%” for its bank and credit union customers. The company plans to use new funding to expand product capabilities, broaden coverage of other types of financial cyber fraud, and ramp up sales and marketing. FiVerity has strengthened its advisory board with industry and government experts and was included by the Federal Reserve in a whitepaper on SIF mitigation and invited to a standards-definition group. The company emphasizes secure identity management and public-private collaboration to scale consumer lending, onboarding, and payments protections.

Led · Series A · Jan 2023

Canvas GFX offers software that enables customers to build end-to-end interactive and multimedia digital instructional experiences, blending 2D illustration, 3D model animations, audio and video content, and interactive 3D models. The platform supports hosted and self-hosted deployments (private cloud or on-premises) and integrates with PLM, learning management, document management, and MES platforms. Customers cited in the article include Anduril, Zipline, and Amsted Rail. Led by CEO Patricia Hume, the company plans to use the new funding to accelerate growth and expand operations. The product is positioned for manufacturing ecosystems seeking integrated, multimedia work instructions. No operating metrics were provided in the article. Canvas GFX provides all-in-one graphical design and technical illustration software that simplifies documentation and sharing of complex objects and systems. Its software is used by many of the world’s largest companies in the aerospace, defense, and manufacturing industries as an integral part of their documentation workflow. The company says it has a customer-hardened product, stable revenue, and an enviable list of satisfied enterprise customers. Canvas plans to use new funding to expand product offerings and accelerate revenue, and it has a Series A financing planned for later this year. Leadership includes CEO Patricia Hume; Wisdom LLP co-founder Gary Griffiths is joining the board as part of the investment, and Mark diTargiani was named VP of Sales. The recent financing was structured as a convertible note intended to convert into the planned Series A.

Led · Seed · Nov 2021

Wabbi provides a continuous security platform that helps organizations ship code meeting application-specific security standards by orchestrating each enterprise’s unique application security program. The platform centralizes automated governance for security teams while empowering development teams to handle security within their regular workflows, unifying processes between Development, Security and Operations. Led by CEO and Founder Brittany Greenfield, the company counts Fortune 1000 organizations among its customers. Wabbi raised over $2M in seed funding and intends to use the capital to scale its team to accommodate customer demand. The company’s investors in the seed included Mendoza Ventures (lead) and participation from Cisco Investments, Work-Bench, NLA Ventures, Dr. James Cash, Matt Provo and Karim Lakhani. Previous investors include Doug Levin, Harvey Morrison, Lou Shipley and Underscore VC.

Led · Seed · Sep 2020

Finch, formerly known as Trio, offers an all-in-one checking and investing account that automatically invests customers' checking balances into portfolios designed to match each user's risk profile. The product lets customers earn investment returns on their checking balance while retaining instant access to their money when needed. Finch combines everyday banking features with automated investing tailored to individual risk preferences. The company has secured institutional backing via a $15 million Series A. Investors named in the coverage include Menlo Ventures, General Catalyst, Bedrock, Y Combinator, and Sempervirens. Finch is reported from New York, NY. Finch (formerly Trio) is a NYC-based fintech founded by Neel Ganu that automates investment of checking account balances into portfolios matched to users' risk profiles. The company is currently in beta and its app is available for preorder. Finch participated in the 2019 Barclays Accelerator, powered by Techstars, New York. It plans to publicly launch its platform in October 2020. The startup recently raised seed funding to support growth. Proceeds will be used to expand its services into the U.S. retail market in the coming months.

Led · Seed · Jul 2020

Senso has built a cloud-based, AI-powered platform that anonymously analyzes first- and third-party data to generate predictive insights about consumers, enabling financial institutions to anticipate behavior and improve retention. The startup currently focuses on the mortgage market and positions its product to help banks allocate marketing budgets, manage inbound channel capacity, and proactively service customers. Senso was founded in 2017 and maintains research and development offices in Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo while expanding its sales presence in the U.S. The company has a team of 25 and plans to more than double its employee base across Canada and the U.S. over the next year and a half. Management says COVID accelerated demand for its product in the U.S., and the company is using new funding to accelerate that expansion and product efforts. Senso.ai develops vertical-specific data pipelines and cloud-based predictive AI products for the Canadian financial services sector, generating continuously improving insights about consumer portfolios. Its offerings include a predictive credit portfolio monitoring solution designed to simplify embedding operational intelligence into large institutions' workflows. Since its founding in 2017 the company has graduated NextAI (inaugural cohort) and Techstars, and participated in TribalScale’s Venture Studios program. Senso.ai has grown a customer and partner base that includes the Royal Bank of Canada. The company recently closed a CA$1.5M seed financing to support growth. Management says the funding will be used to accelerate product development and expand into the U.S. market.