• Heap

  Participated · Seed · Aug 2013

  Heap is a digital insights platform that automatically collects all customer interactions and uses data science to surface actionable recommendations for product and growth teams. In 2021 Heap launched Illuminate, a data‑science‑powered solution intended to address limitations of legacy analytics tools. The company says over 8,000 businesses use Heap and it reported impressive triple‑digit growth. Heap was named Snowflake’s FY2021 Data Marketplace Partner of the Year and has made several senior executive appointments. The company plans to use new funding to scale global operations and accelerate research and development of its digital analytics platform. Total capital raised to date stands at $205 million. Heap builds analytics software that automatically captures all user activity and makes it available in a self-serve way without extra code. The product is designed so teams can answer new queries without the usual manual instrumentation. Heap reports more than 6,000 customers, including Twilio, AppNexus, Harry’s, WeWork and Microsoft. The company has raised a total of $95.2 million following the latest round and plans to use the new capital to fund international growth. Heap will expand its product, engineering and go-to-market teams with the proceeds. CEO and co-founder Matin Movassate, a former Facebook product manager, is positioning the company to take on incumbent analytics providers. Heap automatically records all user activity on websites and apps and exposes that data on a self-serve basis so non-engineers can run queries and get insights. The company is working to integrate other data sources and become the “source of truth for your customer data.” Heap says it has more than 5,000 customers, including Zendesk, Lending Club and CrunchBase. The startup raised $27 million in a Series B and has now raised a total of $40 million. CEO Matin Movassate says Heap’s vision is to “make data useful for everyone” and to help customers focus on insights rather than analytics plumbing. Planned uses for the new funding include more hiring and product development to support more data types and larger volumes. Heap provides a "capture everything" analytics product that automatically collects taps, swipes and other user actions on websites and apps. The platform is designed so anyone across an organization can query user behavior without routing requests through engineers. CEO Matin Movassate says Heap is most successful when adopted broadly and serves as the foundation for cross-team analysis. Customers named in the article include Zendesk, Twilio, Optimizely and CrunchBase. Revenue grew 4.5x in the past year and the company is cash-flow positive. To support continued customer growth, Heap plans to invest more in headcount. Heap offers a 'capture everything' analytics product that records every click, page view, and interaction its JavaScript snippet can capture, and has added native iOS support to capture taps and swipes in apps. The product intentionally avoids capturing sensitive typed form inputs to protect user privacy. Heap positions itself against incumbents like Google and KissMetrics by enabling retrospective analysis without pre-instrumentation. The company raised a $2M seed round to address scaling challenges and to hire engineers to support growth. Founder Matin Movassate cited scaling and hiring engineers as two of the biggest reasons for the raise. Heap is part of Y Combinator's Winter 2013 class.

• BuildZoom

  Participated · Seed · Jun 2013

  BuildZoom operates a marketplace that helps homeowners find and hire construction and remodeling contractors, then supports both parties through project completion. The platform gathers and analyzes data on over 3.5 million licensed contractors and 100 million improvement projects to provide upfront advice to consumers. Led by CEO David Petersen and President Jiyan Wei, the company emerged from Y Combinator in 2013. BuildZoom reports a marketplace with over 12 million annual users and more than 35 employees. Financially, the company has raised a total of $13.5M to date. BuildZoom is a San Francisco, CA-based intelligent marketplace for remodeling and construction services. Led by Jiyan Wei and David Petersen, the platform lets homeowners find and hire contractors and view comprehensive profiles with work history, project photos and customer reviews. The company has collected data and analysis on more than 3.5 million licensed contractors and building permits for over 50 million construction projects nationwide. BuildZoom raised $2.15M in seed funding and intends to use the funds to invest in data science, engineering and customer support operations in its San Francisco office. Investors in the round include Formation 8 (lead), Y Combinator, Streamlined Ventures, Goldcrest Investments, Hydrazine Capital, Signatures Capital, DV Playground, Pankaj Shah and other angel investors. BuildZoom is a Y Combinator-backed online directory that connects homeowners with licensed contractors. The service aggregates public state licensing board data and select Better Business Bureau data to build its database, which now lists 3 million licensed contractors, 25,000 claimed profiles and roughly 60,000 uploaded photos. It combines contractor reviews, web-sourced reviews and business metrics (completed projects, time in business) to produce a "BuildZoom Grade" for each contractor and lets homeowners leave reviews. The company plans to evolve from a discovery/review site into a true marketplace, enabling transactions and cloud-based contract and communication tools so agreements and project management happen online. BuildZoom reports roughly 12% month-over-month growth and about 2,500 contractor sign-ups per month. After launching in March with a small distributed team in San Francisco, the company has been hiring engineers and user-facing staff and plans further headcount expansion.

• Virool

  Participated · Seed · Jul 2012

  Virool offers an Inline video ad unit that launches video ads within articles and other editorial content and has been served across more than 2,000 online properties. Its units are designed to be non-intrusive (muted by default, sound on hover or when explicitly engaged on mobile). Virool also develops eIQ technology that uses webcams to help advertisers gauge viewers’ emotional responses to videos. The company works with publishers including Mashable, Adweek and The Onion and positions its mission as making advertising more human by encouraging more engaging, shareable videos. Virool was incubated at Y Combinator and is led by CEO Alex Debelov. Future plans include more mobile ad units and geographic expansion, including efforts in Japan. Virool provides a self-serve platform that allows video producers, artists, studios, agencies and individual promoters to target audiences (country, age, gender, interests, platform) and buy pay-per-view distribution for YouTube-hosted videos. Its network reaches close to 22 million people across websites, blogs, Facebook games and mobile applications. Since launching the self-serve product, Virool grew from 200 to 30,000 registered advertisers and has promoted 20,442 videos to date; the site was signing up about 450 new advertisers per day and running roughly 80–90 campaigns daily. Campaign spend ranges from a $10 minimum to large brand campaigns (Intel ran a reported $300,000 campaign). The company was founded in late 2011 and participated in Y Combinator’s Summer 2012 batch. With the new funding Virool plans to staff up—particularly on sales—and scale the service worldwide. Virool is a San Francisco-based social video advertising startup launched in May 2012 by CEO Alex Debelov. The company’s platform allows videomakers to reach desired target audiences on Facebook, mobile phones and niche sites. Its services have been used by brands including Clorox, Colgate, Intel, Levis, Orbitz, Samsung, Sony and Volkswagen. The company raised $509,800 via the online venture capital platform FundersClub. Investors in the round include TMT Investments, Y Combinator, 500 Startups, Yuri Milner and others. Virool is a San Francisco-based online video advertising service offering a self-service platform for distributing long-form videos. Launched a few months earlier by CEO Alexander Debelov, the platform allows creators to distribute videos over 30 seconds to targeted audiences across a network of online publishers, blogs, social games and mobile apps. It also provides an application that enables publishers on Facebook, iOS, Android, blogs and other media channels to plug into the network and provide advertising space. The company reported it already has over 7,000 advertisers using the platform. Virool received US$400k from AIM-listed TMT Investments PLC. The company previously raised capital from Y Combinator (including Andreessen Horowitz, SV Angel, Yuri Milner and General Catalyst), Thomvest Ventures, 500Startups, NetPrice, Global Venture Alliance, Plug and Play Ventures, Ryan Tu, Paul Buccheit, Garry Tan, Harj Taggar and Alexis Ohanian. Virool operates a self-serve platform that lets YouTube video producers boost views by placing videos in Facebook and mobile apps. Publishers can integrate via an API and advertisers link YouTube videos, set keywords and geographic targets, and pay as little as $10 to promote content. The startup positions itself as an "AdWords" for longer-form video, targeting videos longer than a minute and charging only when viewers watch at least 45 seconds of a minute-long video. Virool reports more than 5,000 advertisers, is adding about 200 new advertisers daily, and serves over half a million video views per day. Revenues are doubling every month and the company is already profitable, with repeat advertisers and early brand customers including Sephora, Skittles, GM, and Clorox. To keep growing, Virool has raised $500,000 in seed funding.

No current team members are available.